


The Start Of Something New

by parker_stories



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Avengers Family, Avengers Tower, Domestic Avengers, Don't worry, Gen, Hurt, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I don't know why I keep hurting my boy, I'm Going to Hell, I'm Sorry, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Suicide, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Kidnapped Peter Parker, Kidnapping, Like, Loss of Limbs, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Spider-Man: Far From Home Compliant, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker Whump, Poor Peter Parker, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, So please take a moment before reading!, Stabbing, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Torture, Uncle James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Waterboarding, Whipping, but everyone's okay now, but only emotinally, really hurt, stay safe reading this!, they aren't fighting anymore, this is really dark!, yep, you name it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:33:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 43,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25135444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parker_stories/pseuds/parker_stories
Summary: "Breathe Tones, come on man you gotta breathe." Someone's shaking him, but he can't figure out who it is. There's hands on his shoulders, grounding him, he can hear voices, and God he's having a panic attack, he, Tony Stark is having a panic attack because the guy he thought was out of the picture a long time ago is back, and he has taken his child, his pseudo-son right in front of his nose.And now, he's gone.Or:After years of struggle, alcohol and death, Tony finally has everything he ever wanted: Pepper and him are back together again, he and Steve have put their struggle behind them and moved on to something much better, and he's never been so happy to have his little spider-kid sticking on to him, even though he tried to keep him at arms-length at first.Everything's good, everything's fine, but of course, the universe just can't let him keep that.Peter's taken, his kid is gone and it's all his fault. He promised to keep the boy safe, he promised Peter would never have to worry about getting hurt, but now he has and if Tony doesn't find him, he might just breakBut to be honest, he's pretty sure he already has.
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Avengers Team, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Quentin Beck & Peter Parker
Comments: 68
Kudos: 151





	1. The beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends! I'm so happy you decided to read this fic!
> 
> I first wanted to give a big warning on this one, it's a really dark fic and a lot of what happens (and will happen) may be triggering for some people, if you've read the tags you should understand. 
> 
> [Btw, I have changed the whole cover of this story, simply because I wasn't satisfied with it, so now the name and summary's different, but the story is just the same as always. This was earlier called: You hold your child as tight as you can (and push away the unimaginable), but since the title lacked to much creativity I changed it.]
> 
> I decided to rate this Teen because Mature feels to strong for me, but stay safe reading this regardless, so that's about it. Oh and there's a lot of swearing in this too.   
> I've had this one laying on hold for a while, since I've never really gotten the time to post it, but now I did! So I really hope you enjoy this! 
> 
> PS: This isn't St*rker by any means, so if you support it, please leave now and we can go separate ways without trying to murder each other! :)
> 
> Hope you enjoy this, I'll try update it soon enough! Enjoy! <3
> 
> TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR: Mention of rape, suicide, loss of limbs and torture!

Peter Parker had always been a shy kid.

Someone might have said it was because of his lack of parents, and that getting thrown into a world without them had made him scared and confused. Someone else would perhaps say it was because of his betrayal from an old babysitter, and said betrayal had scarred him for life to the point where he didn't know who he could trust. Someone even may think it's because of his uncles death, watching the man he came to love as a father bleed out in front of him as he begged for him to stay, the blood never really gone in his head. 

Peter would like to say it's all three. 

But the emotions that was behind this barrier of shyness, the feelings that he shared with his aunt behind closed doors and dark nights, both of them curled up in May's bed, was way stronger than him not wanting to say hi to people. 

_Grief..._

_pain..._

_depression..._

It was all jumbled together in his brain, in his lungs when they screamed for air, on his skin when phantom touches would catch him off guard and would make him walk right into a panic attack, in his eyes when he would scrub and scrub and scrub at his hands to get the blood away, not realizing it was all in his head. 

It had always been with him, ever since the day uncle Ben had sat him down and told him mom and dad will never come home. 

Peter was good at hiding them, good at plastering on a big smile and fake laugh while he was actually screaming on the inside, begging for a relief. It's what he'd done when he first had met Tony, playing the energetic child who was forcing his fanboy to keep calm when he was actually not impressed at all seeing Tony Stark in his living room. Maybe he would have been, once upon a time, but it was hard feeling any excitement at all when he could see all the lies that had flown out of Tony's mouth the moment he opened it.

_"So, when-when's my next, you know like, 'mission'?"_

_"Mission? oh we'll... call you."_

_"Yeah?"_

_"yeah."_

_Lie._ He was ghosted for two months.

Of course he didn't blame Tony of that anymore, he knew the man already felt guilty enough when any vulture related stuff was brought up. Plus the fact that their relationship had grown way more after Peter had almost died on that beach, which in turn made things between them way more comfortable.

Peter liked this Tony, the Tony that had stopped pushing Peter away and instead made them to what they are now, the one who would sing an arm around his shoulders and press a kiss at the side of his head, it gave him what he'd missed for such a long time in his life, the feeling of having a father. 

Sure, he'd had uncle Ben, but Ben had always been just that, an _uncle,_ the goofy family member who told funny stories to the children and played along with them whenever they got mischievous. Ben had never been his dad, Richard Parker had been that, as he always would be, but that didn't stop him for seeing Tony in those lines too. 

And okay, to be honest, he didn't see Tony as his _dad_ either. He'd thought of how it would feel to call him dad, but the word somehow never made sense in his head. Tony was Tony, not his _father,_ but his _Tony,_ it's what he called him, after numerous of times of Tony practically _begging_ him to _"For the love of God, kid, please stop calling me Mister Stark"_ Peter had learned to warm up to "Tony" and essentially, what he called him had almost become a time stamp on how close their relationship was. 

Mister Stark: His mentor

Tony: His father-figure (But not dad) 

And well, it probably only made sense in his brain. 

Tony had given him something he'd been missing, he'd given him closure, a safe-space, somewhere Peter could go whenever his thoughts became to loud and the world became to dark. A place that wasn't on top of a roof, standing at the edge and wondering what would happen if he just stepped off, letting the force of nature drag him down until he hit the ground and maybe the thoughts would finally disappear. 

Peter's head was... lighter now, a feeling he never thought he'd ever experience again, the pit in his stomach didn't grow, or the tears that used to burn in his eyes had disappeared. Everything was quiet, lighter, he remember the first time he'd realized he could do something he'd never thought he'd be able to do again. 

He could smile without it being forced. 

The thought had made a bubbly laugh escape him when he'd come to the realization, he remember shooting out of his bed and scrambled his way to May who'd been watching TV and practically thrown himself on her, hugging her a bit too hard with his enhanced strength, but May had laughed and he had smiled and everything had felt aright again. 

Which is why, when Peter wakes up in his bed and can almost feel excitement digging in his bones the moment he opens his eyes, he knew his mind has started to heal. 

He can feel that weird movement in his body that just wants to get up and dance and laugh and live his life like there is no tomorrow. He can feel the muscles in his face slowly turning into a smile. 

And _God,_ is it a nice feeling. 

He gets himself dressed as usual, deciding to wear Tony's old MiT Sweater he may or may not have stolen as he heads out of his room. He makes a few graceful steps to the kitchen, feeling like he's in a goddamn musical or something, only to find May making pancakes by the stove with Freddie Mercury singing at full blast on the radio. He smiles at her, her face lighting up like the sun as she pulls him into a hug and kisses his forehead. 

"Morning, sweaty." She greets him. Her gaze incredibly warm. 

"Morning." He yawns, breathing in her familiar scent before taking a seat at the kitchen table "Aren't you suppose to be working?" 

May grins, almost a bit mischievously as she flips another pancake "Nope, Christine lost a bet to me, so now she's covering my shift." She says gleefully.

Peter huffs "What bet?" 

"Well, apparently Rick the security guy has had heart eyes at boss's secretary for a while now, and Christine made a promise to cover one of my shifts if Rick didn't ask her out at the end of the week." She explains. 

Peter snorts. "I assume he didn't." 

May grins. "Nope, almost did the last day before... Well... let's just say he decided to take a nap at the base of her feet." She says, winking at him. Peter huffs, smiling despite of it.

It was nice, seeing May like this, there weren't many times she got to have a day off, mostly because it was usually _her_ who was the one covering shifts, and God did it feel nice, finally being able to see May breath again. May must have notice his unusual happy demeanor, because the moment she lays eyes on him after she's put the pancakes down on the table, a spark lights up in her eyes. She doesn't acknowledge it though, instead she just takes a place at the table and joining Peter in his pancake eating. 

They sit and talk for a few minutes, the air filling with the scent of breakfast as the sunlight is sipping through the small window between the both of them. The thin snow layer is glistering outside on the streets, a few shops and warehouses already putting up Christmas decorations, even though it's not even December yet. 

It's a calm morning, no big monsters attacking the city, no unpaid bills laying on the table that'll send May into a anxiety attack, even Tony has been weirdly happy the last few days, probably from the fact that the whole accords problem is _finally_ solved and the relationship with Cap isn't hostile anymore. It's this small quirks, that's probably the reason to Peter's mood today, and he wished it could stay like his forever. 

Ten minutes later, he's dressed and ready for school. May kisses him on the cheek before he's out the door, feeling like he's ready to take on the world or something. 

He walks the usual rode to the subway, _Hamilton_ blasting in his ear as he watches the world do it's chords. The store owners opening for the day, Mrs Archer walking her three dogs, a sleep deprived businessman drinking coffee at a buss station like his life depends on it.

 _Good ol´ New York,_ he thinks as he fastens his pace. 

His phone vibrates once when he's five minutes into his walk, frowning, he pulls it up to check what it is. 

Today, 07:15 AM.

**Tony:**

_Hey bud_

_Pizza night at the tower with the earth's  
mightiest heroes tonight_

_what do ya say?_

Today, 07:16 AM.

**Me:**

Not sure, May's home tonight 

Today, 07:16 AM.

**Tony:**

_Bring her too! Pep needs more women to  
share whine with anyway ;)_

Today, 07:16 AM 

**Me**

_Yeah alright! :)_

Peter smiles to himself. _Yeah, this is sure one hell of a good day,_ he thinks, retreating back to the holy rap of fictional founding fathers. 

As he arrives, Ned is waiting at his locker, Peter smiles at him, and he can see something like confusion behind Ned's eyes, but the boy instead smiles back, proceeding to tell him about his five minute talk with Betty he had yesterday.

Michelle joins them too when they're walking towards their first class, she bumps him on the shoulder and kisses his cheek, Peter rolling his eyes when Ned starts making gag noises besides him. Even so, the pressure at his sternum that could linger for days, is almost nonexistent, it makes something like hope warm up inside him, a hope for everything to be alright again, 

He should have known better. 

Because when lunch comes around, he almost wished it hadn't. 

They're sitting at one of the benches in the cafeteria, Ned currently in the middle of a rant about how the new Star Wars films is a huge disappointment compared to the older movies. Peter sits and half listens, holding Michelle's hand under the table as he taps on the side of her soft skin, he's using Morse code, even though Michelle can't read it, but he's tapping out H.A.P.P.Y and L.O.V.E Y.O.U, because that's exactly what he feels for the moment. 

Ned is suddenly getting louder when he starts talking about the third movie in the new franchise, and Peter is about to tell him to calm down a little, when the hair on his arms suddenly stands up right. His back goes rigid in alarm, electricity traveling through his spine, _warning him._

_DangerDangerDANGERDANGER!_

Peter's breath comes in fast as he clasps a hand at the back of his neck and quickly looks around, but the room is quiet, Flash and his goons sitting a bit further away from them, some freshmen students putting up posters next to the door. It worries him. He grips Michelle's hand hard to get her attention, she turns her head towards him and kicks Ned under the table to get him to shut up when she notice Peter's change in demeanor. 

"Pete?" Michelle asks. 

Peter swallows. "Something-something's happening I can't-" He retreats his gaze at them, their faces gearing up in a alarm when they see the panic in Peter's eyes. 

They don't have time to react, before the big glass door to the cafeteria suddenly slams open as a bundle of guards comes storming in, all wearing big chunks of heavy gear with big guns in their hands. The whole room is interrupt with screams and gasps, all of the students backing away all little from the guards.

They're aiming their guns at the kids, and a wave of protectiveness searches through him, his instincts telling him to bring out his web shooters and knock them down. Spider-Man saving the day all over again, but he can't. He doesn't know what they want, they can be all from terrorists to kidnappers, and if they're kidnappers, bringing up Spider-Man would only worsen the problem. 

Tony told him that, right after he got a false ransom note from some kidnap wannabees who thought they didn't need to show any proof to Iron-Man that his intern was, in fact, with them. 

(It was pretty fucking hilarious, since Peter had literally been sitting next to him when he'd gotten the call)

Because if they knew he was Spider-Man, they wouldn't make it easy for him to escape. 

Peter watches every move they make, trying to calculate what they want, when a man suddenly steps forward. He isn't wearing any armor, brown hair and stubble beard with blue eyes. Peter's eyes widen when recognition suddenly slams into him. 

Because right there, in front of him,

stands Quentin Beck. A guy Peter _thought_ was behind bars. 

And yet, he's somehow standing there, hands at his sides as his eyes glows dangerously. He snaps his fingers once in the air, making all of the guards change posture and stands a bit straighter, their guns no longer aimed at the kids. 

"Alright everybody, calm down, calm down, no one will get hurt if this goes to plan so everybody just relax, okay? good." He says, voice filled with faux gentleness and dripping with sarcasm. 

Beck grins. "Good, good, really good," He eyes the frightened students, "Alright!" He claps his hands, "I have a few requests right now, so I'm gonna need everyone to follow them unless you want a bullet in your head, is that clear?" He doesn't wait for an answer, just simply grins as he continues, "Perfect, now. Peter Parker!"

_Kidnappers it is, then._

Everyone turns to stare at him, and Peter can hear his own heart picking up speed. "Ah, there you are!" Beck triumphs as he looks at where everyone's staring. "I'm gonna need you to come up here, please" Peter pauses, before he starts to take a few steps forward, desperately avoiding the look on everyone faces. 

He's a few feet away from Beck, when three of the guards comes rushing towards him, grabbing his arms and drags him towards the psychopath. Peter makes a show of struggling, but he lets them pull him towards Beck before they let him go, only for Beck to grab him instead, his right arm around his stomach as he presses Peter's back against his side, one of the guards pointing a gun at his head. A stream of gasps and frightened sounds escapes the crowd, and Peter can see Michelle and Ned looking worryingly at each other. 

Beck's breath is hot and sticky against his ear as he says something to the crowd, but Peter doesn't pay attention too it, instead his hearing is overwhelmed by the sound of his own heart who have seen to make it it's life's goal to tell his brain that _yes, I am beating like a maniac for some god knows why reason, and decided to make you deaf for a moment too._

He would roll his eyes if he didn't see Ned staring at him like he's dying or something. 

His hearing snaps back to the present when he feel Beck lean into him. Peter tries to ignore him and instead gives his friends an assuring look, pouring as much, "It'll be okay." in his eyes, but good lord is it hard when an adult man is currently invading his comfort-zone way too much and his heart beating like it's about to rip out of his chest. 

Peter keeps staring straight ahead as Beck starts talking. "You know, you are a hard person to find, Peter," Beck mumbles close to his ear, the hair on his neck standing up, "Your super friends really didn't want to lose their little boy-toy, didn't they?" Peter makes a disgusting face at him, "Or what do you say?" Beck is suddenly whispering;

_"Spider-Man"_

And just like that, the calm motion of _everything will be okay_ is suddenly thrown out the window. 

The blood drains from his face as he glances at Beck in fright when he realizes what the man knows. Beck smirks. "Thought you would get away that easily, didn't you?" He mumbles. Peter swallows, but tries to glare at him at an attempt to hide the way his hands are currently trembling with fear. 

"Whatever your plan is, you won't get away with it." He says, voice filled with venom. 

Beck huffs. "You're way too naive in this, Parker," He says. Peter keeps glaring at him, before Beck is suddenly using his left hand to fish something up from his pocket. "But I do know, that you're smart," He grunts a little, "So tell me, do you know what this is?" Peter frowns when he sees a small, black and red device. It's no longer than a pen, maybe a bit thicker, but the end of the device is glowing red. 

"No." He says, not taking his eyes off the device. 

Beck smirks. "Really? huh, well it doesn't really surprise me, I'm sure Stark has probably burnt all of the blueprints to this thing, anyway," he says, holding the device in the air in front of them both as he turns it around. Peter's eyebrows rise in surprise. Beck chuckles when he sees his confusion. "Oh yes, you're precious Stark made this thing, although it never ended up on market. A shame really, but luckily I managed to get my hands on it." 

Peter forces himself not to roll his eyes, instead just glaring at the guy holding a gun at his head on his right. He tries to stall this, long enough so that the police or Tony can come and get these assholes to prison. He could overpower them, everyone, especially since he knows this is about Spider-Man, but he's not sure if it's worth revealing his identity to the whole school. No one else is in danger, and it's enough for him to backtrack. 

"What do you want?" He asks instead, finding his gaze on Ned and Michelle rather than Beck. There's still worry in their gazes, but Michelle mouths a,"you will be okay." in his direction, which makes a wave of calmness wash through him.

But the feeling is cut off, when Beck suddenly says in his ear, "To send Stark a message." Peter frowns in confusion and alarm as his senses goes wild, he snaps his gaze towards Beck, only to see that he now has the device against his ear, and before he can react, a high pitched noise goes of in his eardrums.

He panics for a moment, trying to make his hands press against his ears, only to find that he can't. And then it's not just his hands anymore, his back goes rigid, his arms falls to his side, boneless, and God he can't move, he can't move, he can't-. 

A whimper escapes his forced shut mouth, before his legs buckles underneath him as he falls against Beck. Beck shushes him as he grabs him, like the sick fuck he is. Multiple gasps escapes from the crowd, frightened screams from Ned and Michelle and what sound weirdly like Flash as his leveled on the ground.

His eyes meets Ned's for a second, and all of the earlier assurance is completely gone now, instead replaced with a look of terror. His friends is suddenly screaming, both trying to run forwards as they're crying his name. The guards are quick to pull up their weapons though, aiming them towards their heads. 

They stop dead in their tracks before two teachers are pulling them backwards, but their still screaming. He wants to give them some kind of assurance, but his face is slack, frozen, he can't move a goddamn muscle and it's freaking him out.

His vision becomes blurry, and his senses doesn't even react before he suddenly fills a prick at the side of his throat. There's more screams, more noises, but it's fading, he realizes way to late that they probably sedated him with something. His eyelids becomes heavy, the darkness spreading as it pulls him out of consciousness. And the last thing he thinks is just a sad:

_This wasn't how the day was suppose to go._

* * *

Tony is in his lab when Steve marches in, fully armored and looking one second away from killing someone. And well, he's not exactly _unfamiliar_ with the soldier marching in at any given hour and sending him on some mission or whatever, but what is unfamiliar, however, is what looks like legit fear in Steve's eyes, which immediately sets Tony on alert. 

He turns around in his chair to give Steve his full attention, screwdriver still in his hand as he greets the soldier. "What's up, Cap? Please tell me Thor isn't walking around naked again." He tries to joke, but it just falls flat, when it looks like Steve's eyes are almost popping out of his skull. 

The captain swallows. "Tony, we believe Peter has been kidnapped," He says, staring straight into Tony's eyes as Tony freezes in his seat. "I- I don't know how they did it, but they took him at lunch, and apparently also knew about the watch somehow which they took off, and God I don't-" Steve's words died on his tongue when he saw the fear well up in Tony's eyes. 

And yeah, Tony's pretty sure he just had the heart attack of the century hearing those words. 

"What?" He practically yells, his mind having trouble to even processing what the fuck Steve just said. Because no, Peter didn't get kidnapped, Peter didn't get captured by a stranger and taken to an unknown place against his will, Peter didn't do anything else than just be...Peter. And yet, somehow, Steve is standing in front of him and clearly saying that, _well Stark, you just lost the kid who somehow got you out of drinking and has May Parker as an aunt, What the fuck are you going to do now?_

Steve sighs. "Look, I'm sorry Tony, but apparently this group of guards just came marching in on the kids during lunch and somehow managed to take Peter with them when they left, And-" Steve stopped, dragging a hand over his face.

Tony raised an eyebrow at him _"And...?"_

Steve stares at him "I believe they may have taken him because of Spider-Man."

Tony blinks.

_No._

_No they couldn't-_

_How would they-?_

Distantly, he feels the screwdriver he had been holding getting pulled away from his hands, probably because of Dum-E, but Tony doesn't react, he just stares blankly at the soldier for a moment before he suddenly stands up, and begins marching out of the lab. 

"FRIDAY, I need all of my people at the school _now,_ tell them to not stop looking before they can tell me where the hell Peter went, understood?!" He barks at the A.I as he started running towards the closest balcony. 

"Tony, wait," Steve interrupts, making Tony turn to look at him. "If you're gonna do this, you're gonna have to stay calm." He says. 

Tony scoffs "I'm not the one kidnapped for the moment, Steve." He says, even though he knows what Steve means. 

"I know, but Peter needs you right now, don't let rage consume you just... take it easy, we'll find him, okay?" It was kind of nauseating how the soldier could pretty much calm anyone down with just a simple words, but Tony was not in the mood to thank him for it. 

"Of course we will." He says instead, before he's running again, not hearing the soldier's response. He taps the device on his chest twice as he get's closer and closer to the balcony, and just as he has the sky over him, the suit engages around him, the nanobots crawling along his body before his sight is visioned with the familiar display. It calms him, for just a moment, before he's speeding up to Peter's nerd school. 

"Don't worry, Pete, I'll find you." He says into the helmet, and for once, praying for this to go well. 

Tony's losing his mind, he must be, because somehow the guy he's currently looking at on the security screen, is none other than Quentin fucking Beck.

And the guy is smiling, smiling when he watches the horrified kids scream, smiling when Peter gets pulled towards him by the guards, smiling when he's holding Peter at gunpoint, whispering stuff in the kid's ear that makes Peter look beyond terrified. He's holding a device, and Tony's sure the universe was laughing at him when he realized it's the Sonic-taser, the same taser Obadiah had used on him, when he'd paralyzed him

when he'd tried to kill him. 

Rage consumed his body when he saw Beck push the button on the device, only for Peter to seconds later go stiff, his eyes haunted with fear. He wanted to punch Beck for doing this, he wanted to make him bleed for even _thinking_ about taking his kid, he didn't know what would happen to Peter, he didn't know what _had_ happen to Peter, but if even one of the kid's locks was out of place, Tony would make sure death would be a mercy to Beck when they find him. 

The last thing the footage shows is Beck looking right into the camera, and the guy actually has the courage to _smirk_ at it, as if they're just playing a game. 

Tony is two seconds away from punching the screen in pieces, when a hand is touching his wrist. He looks back to see Natasha standing behind him, she levels him a _"Don't"_ look, which Tony grumpily obeys.

"Is there any other footage of where they came from? Like a car or at least a direction?" Steve asks the security guy who keeps an eye on the schools monitors. Apparently he'd been knocked unconscious when Beck's men had stormed in. 

The guy shakes his head. "No, I never saw anything on the screens before it was to late, and I'm pretty sure the guys must have deleted the footage when they knocked me out cus' the picture goes black if I try to rewind it, only the parking lot has working cameras but... There isn't anything suspicious there either. Sorry." He says. Steve, Nat and Tony looks at each other, before they all decides it's hopeless. 

Steve sighs. "Well, thank you for your time, just... Call us if you find anything else, okay?" The guy nods, and Tony is almost impressed by how unfazed he looks in a room full of Avengers. 

"Come on, I heard Peter's friends are still here, we can talk to them." Natasha says, nodding her head towards the door.

Tony looks at her, surprised "Friends? Peter's friends? Are they still here?" 

Natasha nods, "Yes, I heard they want to help." She says, and Tony's pretty sure he can almost see a smile on his face. It calms his nerves down, only for a fraction, and he can feel his thoughts getting lighter, like there's actually _hope_ in this after all, and _God_ do they need that right now.

They exit the room and starts walking down the corridor once they're done looking at everything, not saying another word as they make their way towards the outside of the school, where families and police are gathered, blocking of the area and hugging their (no doubt) traumatized children. 

Michelle and Fred, Ned, whatever, are standing with their families closest to the entrance, their parents talking frantically over their heads as the teenagers look worryingly at each other. 

Tony clears his throat when he's in front of them, making both of their faces snap towards him, and Tony had to suppress a cringe when he saw the pure terror in their eyes. They stare at each other for a few moments, before Michelle breaks the ice. 

"Stark, please tell me you've found peter." She says, jumping to her feet. 

Tony can feel his focus falling apart "I-"

"Mr Stark, Peter's fine, right?" Ned interrupts (he's pretty sure it's Ned) 

"You're going to find Peter, won't you?"

"Stark, I swear to God, if Peter isn't fine then-"

"Michelle," The woman who is no doubt Michelle's mother says "Let the man talk." 

They're both staring at him again, but quiet this time, and Tony wants nothing more to just sink into the ground. 

_(who knew Tony Stark would be scared of talking in front of two teenagers and their parents?)_

He takes a deep breath. "I-I'm sorry, I don't know where he went, but my team's looking and so is the Avengers, I promise we'll find him, alright?" He knows it's not enough, he knows they want him to just find Peter already, but it's the only thing he can provide them, a half-assed assurance that can be crushed at any moment because Tony is an idiot, who never thought of the possibility that maybe Peter needed a little more protection than just some old broken watch he fixed and decided to put a tracker in. 

Michelle sighs. "No we're sorry, I mean you're Tony Stark, we know you will, I would have already punched you if I didn't believe it." She says. And weirdly enough, Tony feels calm by her words. 

He sighs, nods, and decides to stop sulking around and get to work. "Alright, thanks," He takes a deep breath. "I am gonna need you two at the tower, though, if you want to help, and I want you to tell us all the information about what happened in that cafeteria, okay?" They both nod, determination filling their features. "Good." He nods, "And don't worry, Peter'll be fine." They both look at each other nervously, but gives him a tight nod anyways. 

Tony smiles reassuringly, before turning his gaze. "Happy? Take these two and their parents to the tower, would ya?" Happy nods in response, opening the door to the car parked only a few feet away from them, gesturing for the teenagers to hop in. They take one last glance at him, before obediently crawling into the car, Happy jumping into the driver seat before starting the engine as the car slowly starts backing away from the place. 

Tony watches them drive away, the weird confidence he felt just minutes ago immediately draining from him. He stands there, petrified, feeling his thoughts kicking in because _fuck,_ how was he suppose to fix this? May is counting on him, Peter's friends is counting on him, Peter, _tiny, innocent, big-hearted Peter Parker_ is counting on him.

He can't fail them, fail _him_ , Peter is probably just sitting around and waiting for Tony, thinking that he'll probably be out in a few days, but what if he doesn't? God, what if Tony can't find him? What if Beck is hurting him? What if he'll find Peter but it'll be too late? He can't lose Peter, he can't lose him, his child, his _world, he can't-_

"Breathe Tones, come on man you gotta breathe." Someone's shaking him, but he can't figure out who it is. There's hands on his shoulders, grounding him, he can hear voices, and God he's having a panic attack, _he, Tony Stark_ is having a panic attack because the guy he thought was out of the picture a long time ago is back, and he has taken his child, his pseudo-son right in front of his nose. 

"Tones, come on look at me, it's me, Rhodey, you're having a panic attack so you just gotta breathe, okay?" The voice, Rhodey says. He's right, he needs to breathe, he can't save Peter if he doesn't breathe. 

All he does is taking heavy breaths for a long time, feeling his head get lighter and lighter as he calms down. The world comes to around him, he can hear everything again, the families comforting their children, policemen scrambling around the area blocking it off and investigate.

He opens his eyes to see Rhodey standing (or rather kneeling) in front of him, which in turn makes him realize he's sitting on the ground. Natasha and Steve are talking to some police officers further away, but casts not so subtle worried glances at Tony every now and then. 

He looks back at Rhodey, his friend, his fucking love of his life next to Pepper, who's currently watching him with more concern than he's ever seen him before. 

Tony sniffles, "Rhodey, Rhodey he's-" 

"I know Tony, I know." Rhodey cuts him off. And before Tony can do much else, there's arms wrapping around his shoulders. Rhodey holds him, tight, holding him up like the fucking angel he is. 

Tony bits back a sob, feeling fucking pathetic sitting there on the ground and holding onto his best friend for dear life. But Rhodey doesn't let go, they just sit there, hugging.

For a moment, Tony feels like that little kid from college, right after a call he had with Howard that only existed of his father screaming at him for twenty minutes. Rhodey had held him like this then too, putting Tony's head under his chin as a hand cradled it. And for the first time in years, Tony had let himself break down, the voice of his father's drunken screams never leaving his head. 

"God he's gone, Rhodey, he's-" 

"He's not gone, Tones, you just haven't found him yet." Tony doesn't answer, but of course Rhodey can read him like an open book. He pulls back, looking him straight in the eye as he says, "Tony, whatever your mind is telling you right now, this isn't your fault, okay?" Tony sighs, not believing him in the slightest. 

"Rhodes-" 

"Nope, nu uh, this isn't your fault, do you hear me? The only way for it to be your fault would be if you _knew_ Beck would do this and didn't stop him, so, did you know?" 

Tony pulls back, looking at Rhodey like he's crazy "What? of course not!" 

Rhodey gives him a look, "Then this isn't _your fault."_ He says sternly. 

Tony stares at him, debating whether Rhodey is the reason to why he's alive, or if he's just been manipulated for the last twenty years. At last, he gives in, much to Rhodey's delight, and makes a move to stand up so he can at least save _some_ dignity. Rhodey holds onto his arms as he helps him up, patting his back. Tony wipes some dust of his pants, straightening his shoulders as he looks around. 

The area is almost completely blocked by a bunch of police officers standing between the Avengers and the families, mostly to keep the people away from ruining the investigation, much to Tony's relief. He straightens himself a bit more, before he starts walking towards where Nat and Steve are standing, Rhodey following him a few feet behind. 

They turn to look at their direction when they here them coming, both trying (and failing) at hiding their concerns, which Tony just rolls his eyes at. 

"Tony," Steve says. "You alright?" 

Tony waves a hand, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Natasha just raises an eyebrow at him, which Tony does his best not to cringe under. He clears his throat. "You find anything else?" 

Steve and Nat shares a look, before they both are shaking their heads. 

Steve sighs. "I'm sorry, Tony. However Beck got in unnoticed with a bunch of armed men we don't know, but we think he paid of some people" 

"Payed off?" 

"Or threatened," Natasha cuts in, "You'd be surprised how deep Beck's community go."

Tony stares, feeling like he just aged ten years as the words dawn on him. "Do you know anyone who is?" 

Natasha shakes her head. "No, but we think some of the people at the school must have been." 

Tony sighs, dragging a hand over his face as he thinks. "Can we check that somehow? like, blackmail them or whatever." 

Steve raises an eyebrow at him, "Blackmail?" 

Tony glares, "I don't know, but at least find out who else is behind this so we can find Peter before Christmas!" He barks. 

The soldiers shares a look with each other, and Tony can feel his temper increasing. 

"Alright, we'll take everyone in the staff to the police station to interrogate them, hopefully we can bring some children too, see if they want to testify." Steve says. 

Tony nods, feeling drained. 

"And Tony," Natasha says, Tony turns his gaze towards her. "Don't lose yourself over this, I know you're scared but Peter needs you right now, you gotta keep a clear head."

Tony stares at her. 

Keep a clear head? Yeah he could do that, he would run around with straight thoughts and sobered mind if it meant Peter would come back, but it wouldn't work right now, he knew that, there was nothing to go of, no clues, no ransom notes, no hint to where Beck could possibly have taken Peter that hadn't been found by FRIDAY or the police yet.

Sure, it had only gone half a day, but Tony was suppose to have found him _now,_ because this was Beck, a psychopath who never saw anyone else except himself, who thought that holding a gun in front of everyone's faces would keep the world in peace.

Plus, Beck was smart, no matter how hard that realization was, he used to be a former employee for Stark Industries for crying out loud, and he knew how to keep himself away from radars and especially Tony's tech, since he had literally been there upgrading them.

God, Tony felt like an idiot, why did he ever trust that guy with anything that was remotely related to him and the company? 

"Tony?" A voice suddenly says, bringing him back from his thoughts. He blinks a few times to see the two soldiers and Rhodey look worryingly at him, even though it should be _Peter_ anyone worries about. 

"Yeah, I'm- I'm alright." He says, keeping his voice away from cracking. They didn't look convinced, but Tony didn't want to deal with that right now. Because the only thing that would ever matter as long as Peter would be gone, would be to find him. 

_Please for the love of God, let me find him._

_Please don't take him away from me..._

* * *

There's darkness, he can't hear much except a high pitched noise in his ears, making a headache form in his scull. He doesn't know where he is, but he can feel someone stroking his hair. Peter frowns, but immediately relaxes into it when he realized it's obviously Tony, maybe he got hurt on patrol or something? 

"T-T'ny." He mumbles. The hand in his hair goes still, and Peter's pretty sure he can hear a low chuckle coming from right. He peels his eyes open, squinting when his vision is invaded by a bright light. The hand has been removed completely, which makes confusion grow even more inside him. 

"T'ny." He tries again, his eyes trying to adjust to the light. The chuckle comes back again. 

"Nope, sorry kiddo, you're precious Stark isn't here right now." An unfamiliar voice says. Peter frowns, having a hard time to process what he just heard. Precious? Precious Stark? 

Panic shots through his veins when he suddenly remembers who was talking to him. Beck, Quentin Beck, the guy who probably scared a hundred kids for their life. 

Peter opens his eyes completely, his head snapping to his right to look at where the voice was coming from, and Peter feels rage bubble inside him when he sees the annoying face of Tony's ex-employee. Beck is grinning at him, looking way to pleased with himself. He tries to glare, but he can still feel that paralyze thing slacken his movements. Beck just keeps chuckling before his hand is in Peter's hair again, peter flinches away, trying to get up and just get the fuck out of here, when something around his wrists stops him. 

Peter looks down to see he's sitting in a chair, his wrists and legs cuffed with some kind of metal around them. His chest is cuffed too, but what makes him panic more, is the electric wires attached to the cuffs, all red and green and blue spirals ending at something behind him. He can't see what it is, but his heartbeats are already going 200 M.p.h as he looks around the room. 

It's pretty small, the only light is the light-bulb hanging over him. It's dark but Peter can almost make out what looks like a video camera a few feet in front of him. 

_Oh good, he's plan is to give Tony a heart attack, just great._

Beck is suddenly moving besides him, standing up and pacing the room. Peter just looking at him with one eyebrow raised, trying to hide the fear that's currently tearing him apart inside. 

"Any reason for this kidnapping, or were you just lonely?" He asks, watching Beck snap his gaze towards him. Beck's still smiling, which makes an unpleasant feeling well up in his stomach. 

"Oh I'm not lonely, but I do enjoy you're concerns." Beck says

"So what do you want, then?" Peter asks, just wanting this shit show to be over. 

Beck laughed, "Oh I want a lot, actually," He walks until he's a few feet in front of Peter, hands behind his back which no doubt means the dialog is coming.

_Just great._

"You know, I used to work for Stark, once upon a time. I was proud, proud to work with one of the greatest companies of the generation, knowing that I get to work for a company who has the power to change the world, " 

But what I didn't expect, was that _nothing_ of what I invented would make me the man on the horse." Beck is suddenly walking towards him. "I spent, _years_ working on a project that would change the world, who would become the weapon that would make America untouched by any other countries because of their fear," He snarls. 

"Those drones was supposed too keep an eye on everything that's happening in this land, there wouldn't be any more aliens invading this planet, or robots that paranoid geniuses would create and destroy the world," Peter glares at him as Beck is suddenly just inches from him.

"But instead, your little daddy Stark decided to make them a- a what? therapy experiment? something that any therapist in the world could do the exact same job? Trust me Petey, you couldn't trust Stark even if he puts his hands on a bible." Peter presses himself against the chair when Beck is right in his face. 

"So why the hell am I here? Don't you think this is something you talk about over a cup of coffee?" Peter snarls, glaring at the man who's uncomfortably close. 

Beck huffs. "You're here, because Stark needs to learn how it's like getting your world taken away from you," Peter's senses suddenly flares up again. "So I'm gonna make him learn that." He says dangerously. 

"What do you-" Peter only has half a second to see what beck's holding, before a knife is suddenly plunged right into his abdomen. Pain flares in his body, the metal searches into the his side, tearing the flesh as blood starts seeping out, Peter screams, or at least he's sure he does, because the only thing his mind is registering is the unimaginable pain slicing through the skin. He sobs, feeling the knife get turned left to right in where it's planted, another wave of pain filling his body. 

He breathes heavily, gasping for air as the cuffs around his body keeps him from falling over. Peter squeezes his eyes shut, he can feel the blood coating his pants, and he almost throws up because _God, It hurts._

Beck is smiling at him, watching his agony as if it's some sort of trick show, and Peter wants to _murder_ him. 

He starts walking, circling him like predator taunting it's prey.

"You know, Stark always told me, 'sometimes you gotta run before you can walk'," Beck chuckles a little. "I myself thought it was stupid, I mean, how do you succeed in something if you haven't even learned the basics yet? huh? How... Can you _possibly,_ do something without creating it first?" Beck was getting louder and louder as he talked.

"I mean, _I_ never learned how to build a circlet board when I was four, I never had the money to go get drunk and just sit on top of a donut watching the world fall apart without any of it bothering me, No, I needed to start from _scratch,_ I needed to somehow get enough scholar ships to end up in a good college if I even wanted to _dream_ about becoming something bigger!" Beck yelled, punching a fist into his chair, making Peter cry out. 

"And despite all of that, I got to the top, I worked my ass off for six years at Stark Industries, I did every little thing it took to just make Stark see me, and _nothing worked!_ He stole my life work, he stole the thing that would get my name into history books, and represented it as just a side project, something _stupid!"_ Beck spits. "He took my world, he took my future, and I'll make sure to destroy his."

Pain slices through his body again as Beck grabs the knife and yanks it out of him. Peter screams, tears streaming down his face as his body gasps for breath. He sobs, his whole body shaking. 

Beck suddenly grabs his face, turning it roughly upwards so their gazes meet. Peter whimpers, trembling as he looks right into ice-cold, brown eyes "So get comfortable, Peter, you and I will be here for a while." He says, releasing his chin. 

Beck turns on his heels, walking out of the room with a loud bang as he closed the big metal door. Peter sobs, the ache in his stomach growing stronger, he feels sick thinking about it, thinking about what he just heard.

He tries to look around the room, rolling his head along the chair. He spots what looks like a control panel to his right, he's sitting in the middle of the room, behind him is no doubt a energy source of some sort, if the wires is something to go after. He almost starts sobbing again when he thinks about what their usage is for, but he immediately pushes that thought down. 

He takes one last look before closing his eyes, feeling the helplessness well up inside him. 

Before he drifts off though, he whispers one final thing into the air. 

"Tony, please find me." 

_Of course, no one answers._

* * *

Tony sits in the dark. He sits, and he's holding a glass in his hand, he sits and drinks from it, feeling the burning liquid wash down his throat. 

He doesn't care. 

The only thing he cares about is the footage playing in front of him, the recordings of the kidnapping, and Tony's pretty sure he's losing his mind. 

He watches as Peter get's paralyzed, he watches the fear, the panic, the helplessness Peter's beautiful brown, doe eyes never should carry, and God, he's going to _murder_ Beck for even thinking about putting those feelings there. 

The thing is, Tony knows how it feels, he knows how it feels like, to be completely and utter helpless as the person having control over the device can do whatever the fuck they want with you. He doesn't know if he should feel reviled over the fact that Peter got tranquilized before those feelings got to their fullest, because God, if Peter had experienced them, Tony can't believe what kind of memories that would trigger. (He dutifully ignores the voice of Peter saying "Skip" in the back of his mind)

The guilt is welling up in his throat, consuming him. He can't believe this happened, he can't believe he let Peter get taken, he was suppose to protect him, and he _failed. He fucking failed._

Distantly, he hears the door to his lab opening, but he can't bring himself to look who it is. 

His hold tightens around the glass until his knuckles turns white, and he can hear someone sigh heavily behind him. 

He doesn't care. 

"Tony, you can't let Beck win this." A voice says, or rather Pepper says. He turns around, putting the glass back on the table as he looks at her. Clenched jaw, stern eyes, but Tony can see worry and fear linger behind them. 

"I'm not letting him win anything." He grunts. 

Pepper raises an eyebrow at him "Tony, why do you think he took Peter?"

"Because he likes to traumatize children?" He suggests, taking another sip of his drink.

"Because he wants to hurt _you."_ Pepper explains. 

Tony doesn't answer. 

Pepper sighs. "Look, Tony, you may know this, but Beck _hates_ you. _Yes,_ he's a psychopath, and _yes,_ he may not have the mental stability to classify as a functioning human being, but that doesn't mean that he won't do anything in his power to hurt the person he claims hurt him." Pepper looks into his eyes as he still doesn't answer. She takes a few steps forward until she's in front of him, she grabs his hands, rubbing a thumb over them sweetly as he stares into his fiancee beautiful eyes. 

"And if you ever want to find Peter again, you can't run away to your lab and hide there forever, because Peter needs you. I know this is scary, I know you're probably blaming yourself in twenty-two different ways right now, but you can't afford doing this to yourself." She says sternly. Tony sighs, his eyes burning with tears as a sob starts to build up in his throat. Pepper senses his verge of breaking down, because the next thing he knows, she uses her hands to push Tony's head against her abdomen, running her fingers in his hair. 

And Tony... breaks down.

He sobs, tears streaming down his cheeks as pathetic wales leaves his mouth. He's never felt so useless before, and he can feel the shame welling up in his body as he hears his father's voice far back in his head. 

_"Stark men are made of iron."_

He doesn't care anymore, all he cares about is to get Peter _home._

There's only ever been a handful of people who Tony Stark would ever let be seen like this in front of. Rhodey, Happy, Pepper, and now Peter. They were his rock, and everyone who even knew the slightest bit of Tony was highly aware he would do everything in his power to keep them safe. Even if it meant destroying everything in his path to keep it that way. 

But right now, he doesn't feel like that. He isn't _Iron-Man_ anymore, he isn't _Tony Stark_ anymore, he's just Tony, a man who just lost his child and want to scream to God and demand him to answer why the _fuck_ this even happened. 

But instead, he breaks in his fiancee's hold as they sway slightly back and forth, Dum-E beeping nearby in concern as he watches his creator sob and clinging to the woman he loves for dear life. Pepper bends down and kisses his head, Tony never noticing her own strays of tears as she sees a deconstructed web-shooter laying on a working bench. 

He hasn't cried like this for ages, the closest he's ever been had been on his own in a lonely workshop, after Rhodey had hit the ground when they'd been fighting Steve's team and the doctors hadn't been sure if his best friend would make it or not.

Tony had gone down to his lab and just started to destroy everything that he could get his hands on, especially the equipment he'd been upgrading to the team that just wouldn't stop acting like five year old's. tearing apart suits, hammering with all his might on thrusters and Sam's goddamn red-wing. 

He'd screamed until his throat was raw, and punched glass until his knuckles became red. Dum-E and the other robots had all huddled in a corner, and Tony had only broke down crying and curling up in a little ball when his eyes had landed on the terrified robots. He'd felt lost, hurt, betrayed, and a whole other feelings that kept tearing him apart from the inside and squeezing his heart until it became a bloody mess.

That had been the first time he had listened to Peter's voice messages. The kid had only made one, but he still sounded like the brave and giddily boy he was today, only a bit more awe-struck and naive. Tony's chest clenched every time Peter asked about the next "mission", it reminded him how he had literally lied to the kid just to not disappoint him when they were face to face. He felt selfish, but he'd feared that he would only fuck up Peter even more if he would let the kid in. 

And God had he been, so, so, wrong. 

He started to get to know the kid more after the whole vulture shit-show, inviting him into his lab and actually get a use of the kid's knowledge and cleverness. They got closer, and Peter got less nervous and more confident in Tony's presence, to the point where they are now. 

But the thing that still haunted him, was that he _knew_ Peter had been far from okay with being left in the darkness those first months, even though the boy had assured him multiple times after Tony had ended up on the floor after a guilt stricken panic-attack and he'd mumbled "I'm so sorry, Peter." over and over that he didn't blame him, that he'd understood Tony's decision of wanting to protect him, but he'd seen the slight undertone of what looked like almost betrayal when Peter had connected the dots to himself what Tony was saying sorry for. 

Of course, Peter said he didn't blame him, he had even said he forgave him when those first words hadn't been enough.

But at that moment, alone in the middle of a breakdown, when he'd gotten the video from an annoyed Happy, he had felt the tension leaving his body as he listened to the definition of pure innocence filling the air. He smiled every time Peter's voice would go three octaves higher when he explained something he loved, which happened almost every time the kid had saved a cat from a tree or caught a run-away dog. He felt calmer, knowing that the future held way better heroes it could ever ask for. 

Way better than what it had. 

He still punches himself every time he realizes he almost took that away, when he'd taken Peter's suit and the kid had begged him to let him keep it, when the words that still haunted his mind had come out of the kid's mouth; 

_"But I'm nothing without this suit!"_

_"If you're nothing without this suit, then you shouldn't have it."_

Peter had always been everything, and now the world seemed to want to take that away again. 

Sure, it's not like he _hadn't_ been expecting this, he'd even given Peter lessons _himself_ what to do if you get kidnapped, always making sure the kid would keep himself calm if he ever got into another person's hands. He'd explained how Spider-Man was off the table unless it was the only way to get out of there alive, and even though Peter had been resentful when Tony'd told him, the kid had agreed and promised to do as Tony had explained if something would ever happen. 

And now it _had_ happened, but the difference in this was that Tony _knew_ Beck wouldn't let Peter go that easily, they all knew that.

And unfortunately, this wasn't the first time Beck had decided to be a pain in the ass, just last year FRIDAY had caught Beck sneaking in into the R&D department, she hadn't been able to see what he'd been doing, so Tony had just assumed he simply hadn't gotten that far before the police had arrived. It's what had gotten him to jail in the first place, and later, Spider-Man would find a whole lair with the same drone technology in an empty warehouse outside the city, Beck's name plastered on everything. 

The thought sent another shiver up his spine, because that means _revenge_ also played a part in this whole fucking mess. 

"Tony?" Pepper suddenly asks, snapping him out of his thought in the process. "Are you gonna do this?" She asks determinedly. 

Tony lifts his head to stare at her, she drags a hand over his hair, scratching his scalp. He takes a deep breath before he stands up, wiping away his tears. Pepper steps away a little as she smiles courageously at him. 

Tony looks around the room, his gaze landing on the web-shooters laying innocently. He walks towards them, grabbing them in his hands as he examined them. Somewhere, in the back of his mind he can hear Peter's voice triumphing cheerfully, saying:

_"Look, Mr Stark! They're working!"_

_"Or course they work, Pete, you made them."_

He smiles at the memory of how red Peter's cheeks had gone that day. 

_I'll get Peter back, I always will._

A wave of determination fills his features, his shoulders squaring up as he looked up at Pepper, a new found hope blooming inside him. He smiles alluringly at her. 

"Let's get go our boy back." 

* * *

He doesn't know how long he sits there, his lungs fighting for air as the pain in his stomach grows stronger. He knows it won't kill him, his powers will no doubt fix it until the end of the day, but it still feels like his skin is being torn apart over and over again. 

Peter shudders, the blood who's now arrived to his crotch is making his pants stick uncomfortably to his skin, and the smell is already being awful thanks to his enhancement. His senses are still screaming, and Peter doubts they would ever shut up as long as he's here, a groan escapes his body at the thought. 

But Tony would find him, he always did. Soon, he would rip open that door, destroy these goddamn cuffs around his body, and make the pain in his stomach _leave,_ just like he always did, like he always would. Tony would save him, and Peter let the thought linger for a moment, he was almost sure he could hear Tony's voice break through the empty room. 

_"Pete, you gotta let go, I'm gonna catch you."_

He'd said those exact same words when he almost fell of a building, his suit malfunctioning when the Avengers had been called to defeat another super villain of the week.

Tony would catch him, just like he always did. 

Soon, he would come and rescue him and there would be like no time has past at all, like Beck never happened, like the knife had just appeared from another drunk mugger that managed to get his upper hand on Spider-Man. Soon, he would blow Beck's ass to kingdom come and help Peter out of the chair and guide him to the quinjet. Soon, Peter would fall asleep only to wake up with a familiar hand in his hair, another around his wrists as soothing words would greet him when he opened his eyes. 

Soon he would be home, and everything would be alright again. 

Peter sits there, eyes roaming lazily back and forth around the room, his thoughts and the pain in his side being enough to keep him from boredom. He twiddles his wrists a bit under the cuffs, taking a deep breath before he pulls at them with all his might, but whatever drug he has in his system, or metal the cuffs are made of, it's strong enough to leave him panting when he strains his whole body to try and break them, more pain flaring up in his body from the wound. 

He squeezes his eyes shut, feeling the room getting brighter and the sounds getting louder. He can feel the bruises slowly forming on his wrists thanks to the tightened cuffs, he can hear the small buzzing of a machine coming from the behind him, he squeezes his eyes even tighter, but the light seeps through his eyelids anyway.

A headache is forming behind his eyes, the sounds and the light and the smells all snapping in on him as his breathing starts to become heavier. His ears catch what sounds like an animal pounding through snow, high above him where the ground must be. He can't hear any cars or people, only the sound of the wind and leaf-less twigs hitting each other by it. He tries to focus on it, tries to block the on going sensory overload taking over his mind. 

Tony was usually the one helping him deal with his overloads, the man would always keep a few feet away from him during those episodes, carefully placing two sound canceling headphones on his head when Peter couldn't bare himself to move without throwing up.

He'd sit close to him, not touching but close enough to always assure Peter he's there, working on his tablet or watch something on the muted TV while Peter would lay next to him on the couch. It kept him calm, listening to the sound of his Tony's heartbeat as it lulled him to sleep. 

Tony always had a bit different heartbeat than everyone else's, it was steady, but with every beat always contained another, weaker one:

 _Thump-thump....._.thump _......thump-thump....._.thump. _.....thump-thump......_

He guessed it was from Tony's time with the arc reactor, the device probably sending his heart out of rhythm and leaving behind an extra beat. Peter had always loved it, it was a way for him to distinguish his mentor from everyone else, knowing that Tony was alive as long as he could hear that pattern. 

Peter wished for nothing but to have Tony here, or May, just so he could feel safe for a moment, Beck had no doubt brought him way out of the city, even _he_ wasn't that stupid not to. The thought sends an uneasy feeling in his stomach. 

But Tony would save him, The team would save him, they always did. 

So, Peter let his eyes close, the darkness spreading around him as he falls into an easy sleep, the last words his brain thinks calming him a bit as he slips into unconsciousness. 

_"Don't worry, Tony will catch me."_

_"Just like he always does."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooooooo, what'd ya think?
> 
> I really hope you liked it, but please leave feedback in the comments if there was any big typos I should know about (English isn't my native language) otherwise I'm soooooo glad you made it through the whole thing! 
> 
> The next chapter will probably be out soon, since I'm almost done with it, so more tags might appear later on, depends on how much I'll keep hurting my boy (sorry) 
> 
> Stay safe and wash your hands! (and kick racists in the butt!) 
> 
> Love ya! Bye!


	2. The Journey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hours later, Pepper comes home, exhausted from the worry of Peter and the stress the company's receiving every time Christmas is near, only to find the whole team asleep in the living room surrounded by Christmas ornaments and blinking lights everywhere. Her eyes wells up in tears when she sees Tony on the couch, squeezing a small box wrapped up in red and blue paper, no doubt the present he bought a month back to give Peter at Christmas. 
> 
> Clint is the only one awake, his posture tense as he sits with his laptop on a table. He turns around when he hears her, and Pepper smiles sadly at him. Clint nods in return before going back, Pepper pretends not to hear the silent sob escaping him. 
> 
> Clint pretends to not hear hers, either. 
> 
> The hope is starting to fade. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 is now out my dudes! Hope you like it! 
> 
> I wanted to warn you again that this fic is incredibly dark, so be careful when you read this! I am not doing much censoring in the scenes *with that I mean that the torture scenes* so read this with your own regard.
> 
> Also, there's a big mentioning about rape in this chapter, it doesn't happen but they talk about Skip Westcott (If you know who he is) and that he used to be a part of Peter's life, so that's the closest I get when it comes to any rape related stuff. 
> 
> (Btw, Beck will not abuse Peter in that way in any chapter, so you don't have to worry about that)
> 
> Ps: just another reminder that this is not St*rker! 
> 
> I really hope you enjoy this, if not then feedback is appreciated!

Two days go by, and Tony is losing hope all over again. 

The team is currently gathered in the living room, as it being the most comfortable place to do all-nighters in. Laptops and different kinds of food someone threw at them are spread all over the room, coffee mugs and empty energy drinks joining the mess too. 

Bruce is sitting on the couch next Nat and Sam, all three of them looking through every camera footage that was recorded in a five miles area away from the school. So far they've only found a few weird white vans, but nothing else out of the ordinary, and Tony is this close to starts screaming. 

He himself is looking through Beck's time in prison, trying to figure out how the hell that guy managed to escape in the first place. He must have paid people off, just like Steve had said, and the thought does nothing to calm down the anxiety stirring in his gut.

Rhodey is flying over half the state to look for Beck, but he hasn't found any traces of a place where a group of armed men could possibly had been hiding, it's like Beck and his men came out of thin air. 

Wanda even brought it on herself to try and find Beck's brainwaves, (because apparently that's something she can do) but wherever Beck is, he's too far gone for Wanda to find him. 

Tony hates how many steps ahead Beck is from them. 

The room is loud of frustrating mumbles and chairs scraping against the floor, Steve letting out a practically loud groan as he looks through the reports of the students interrogations they had at the police stations. They're all pretty much the same, going; Peter snapping his gaze towards the doors before anything happens, guards storming in, Beck calling Peter's name, Beck holding Peter hostage with another guy holding a gun against Peter's head, Beck mumbling things to Peter every now and then. 

Beck paralyzing him. 

None of the students saw anything that could hint to where they came from or where they went, a lot of the times because they were too scared to think of much else. 

Michelle and Ned were pretty much the same, although they did mention that Peter had no doubt walked up there willingly, even though he could've probably over powered them. Guilt forms in Tony's stomach at the thought of Peter being taken against his will simply because he trusted Tony enough to find him, so much he didn't even try to fight the men.

Of course, that's exactly what Tony had told him to do, but he's slowly starting to regret putting so much assurance in Peter when he can't even find him _himself,_ but instead needs the whole goddamn Avengers to even find something that could consider a good fucking lead. 

God, he can't believe Peter's gone, he can't believe Peter Parker is fucking gone, he can't- 

"Boss, I've just received a recording from an unknown source, should I play it?" 

The whole atmosphere is suddenly incredibly quiet as everyone looks up at the ceiling.

Bruce frowns from where he's sitting on the couch "Recordings?" He asks the A.I.

"There's a high chance it's about Peter, boss." FRIDAY says quietly. 

Everyone's gazes snaps towards him. 

"Play it." He orders. 

No one breathes as they all turns to look at the TV where FRIDAY brings up the footage. 

The video starts with someone fiddling with the camera, for the moment all they see is someone's chest taking up the whole screen, before the figure seems to be done with whatever he was doing to the camera, and starts backing away a little. 

Thunder sparks in everyone's eyes when Quentin Beck is suddenly fully faced on the screen, he's smirking with his hands behind his back, and Tony feels pure rage well up inside him when he looks into the asshole's eyes. 

Beck smiles. "Hello Stark, The Avengers, maybe even May Parker herself. My name is Quentin Beck, in case you forgot, and I've been informed you're currently looking for someone, a... Peter Parker, Was it? He's a lovely kid, I'll give him that, I'm not even surprised you want him too." Beck chuckles, Tony's insides flares. 

"It really would have been an honor to meet you all, but unfortunately I'm currently really busy for the moment," Beck pauses, and sends a maniacal grin to the camera. "Now, I'm sure you're wondering where your little Petey Pie is for the moment, don't worry, I'll show him soon enough, he's been dying to meet you all, you know?" Beck looks up at the ceiling as if thinking for a moment. "And I'm preeetty sure he's screamed you're name at least sixteen times, Stark." 

Terror is the only way to describe everyone's faces. 

"But, enough waiting, why don't we see how our little Spider-Baby is doing, hm?" Beck takes a few more steps backwards, until you can see the room he'd been standing in. The camera zooms out a little, giving a whole view of the room they're shown, and Tony's breath hitches when he sees who's sitting in the middle. 

"Peter." He breathes. 

Because right there, sits Peter Parker, strapped to a chair with metal cuffs all around his wrists, legs and stomach. Tony's heart drops to the floor when he really sees his kid, pale, bloodshot eyes, and skinnier than Tony remembered, even though it's only been two days. 

Peter is slumped in the chair, staring tiredly at the camera, barley holding his eyes open as a low whimper escapes his mouth. The team watches their youngest member through teary eyes, Steve pressing his fist against his mouth, green lines appearing on Bruce's skin, Natasha gripping a knife until her knuckles turns white.

Tony just stares, feeling disconnected to his body as he watches the kid _-his kid-_ looking more vulnerable and small than he's ever seen him before. 

Beck suddenly moves again, making everyone pause to see what he does next, and Tony is one gamma radiation away from hulking out and tear the city down when he sees what he does, and somehow, it's worse than the pool of blood laying underneath Peter's feet. 

Beck walks towards Peter, and starts to _shush him._ The sick fuck is suddenly running his fingers through Peter's hair, murmuring calm and assuring things as though _he_ wasn't the one putting Peter in that chair, as though _he_ wasn't the one making Peter's eyes become wide with terror. 

Rage fills everyone's eyes, their postures screaming bloody murder as Beck suddenly caresses a hand across Peter's cheek. Peter flinches away, squeezing his eyes shut. Satisfaction fills Tony's body, just for a moment at Beck's failed attempt, but it quickly forms back to rage again when Beck _chuckles,_ as though Peter was just a naughty child not realizing he's in trouble. 

Luckily, Beck pulls away, and Tony can see Peter breathing out a sigh of relief in the background. 

"Do you want to hear a story, Stark?" Beck suddenly asks the camera. He chuckles. "Of course you do, everyone likes stories." Beck smiles, before he starts walking again, walking behind Peter's chair so he stands on the other side of it, his hand suddenly in Peter's hair again, and he's making petting motions as though Peter was just a pet. His anger is at full force again when Peter turns his head away in shame. 

"Do you know who... Thomas Edison was? Well, obviously you know, he was the guy who invented the light bulb, and the phonograph, some even say he invented the film camera, even though there was another guy who invented it years before Edison did, but unfortunately that guy just, disappeared." Beck made a puffing gesture with his hand, still proceeding to pet Peter. "Thanks to that, Edison could invent his camera in quiet without having to compete with someone else, there's even a theory that _Edison_ was the reason behind the other guy's disappearing." Beck chuckles. 

"They basically say Edison took or killed this guy just so he could get to be the one inventing it, isn't that crazy? Edison quieting someone else because of his own benefit and pronouncing the work as _his._ I mean I don't even remember that other guy's name, all because he disappeared right before it would get remembered." Beck stops his petting before he grabs a fistful of Peter's hair, hard enough for Peter to grunt a little, Tony feels his own fists clench the same.

"But enough about what he stole, I wanna tell you about something he _invented."_ Beck shifts a little in his seat. "I wonder, did you know Edison created the electric chair? Well, he didn't _create_ it, but he financed it, to say the least. It was mostly to show how dangerous the method a rival company used at the time to handle electricity was. When they created the chair, Edison also thought it was for the greater good, an execution that would immediately turn off the prisoner's brain before he would feel any pain, but when they tested it for the first time..." Beck shook his head while making pity noises. 

"The voltage they used was too low, and the guy died a gruesome and painful death." Beck let go of Peter's hair and returned to the petting once again, "You see, Edison had tested it out on non-humans a few times, such as a horse for example. To kill the horse without pain, he needed to use 3000 volt, and so he assumed the human only needed around 1700 volt, the problem was that if he went too high, the person will catch on fire and burn to death instead, which I guess was a bad thing." Beck says nonchalantly.

"Jesus." Clint muttered. 

"But instead, it got to low, and the guy died while screaming, apparently the smell of burnt hair consisted for days after the execution," Beck smirks "But from that area, something new arrived, a new kind of _torture_ as people likes to call it. They would simply put a hostage in the chair and sap him with lower voltage that wouldn't kill him, but painful enough to give out answers. I myself always admire that, such a creative way of using a device that was banned from execution." Tony has never wanted to punch someone so badly. 

"And now... I do wonder... What would happen if little Petey Pie was in the same position?" Tony's blood runs cold, along with everyone else's as they all stare at the screen. Peter snaps his gaze towards Beck, apparently having been strong enough to keep up with Beck's words. There's terror in his eyes as his breaths starts to come in faster, and Tony has never wanted to jump through that screen and hold him so badly because, _no,_ this couldn't happen, not Peter! 

Beck smiles, patting Peter's cheek. "I hope the scars won't ruin your face." He says, before his hand grabs something behind him. 

Peter whimpers, his voice wavering as he pleads, "Please, please don't, please I can't-" 

Tony can only watch as Beck pulls a lever down, before a machine lights up behind Peter, and the kid starts _Screaming._

Peter muscles spasms in his seat, agonizing and howling sounds leaving his mouth as the electricity travels through his body. He sobs, pressing his head back against the chair as he squeezes his eyes shut, another agonizing cry echoing through the TV's speakers.

The team stands in frozen shock as they watch their youngest member continue to spasm and cry, tears streaming down his face. Clint punches the wall next to him, hard enough for it to dense, but he doesn't care, no one does as they stares helplessly at Peter's young and painful face. Another scream escapes the kid, and Tony feels like he's about to pass out as Beck just stands at the side and _watching,_ his eyes sparkling with madness.

Finally, after what felt like years, Beck pulls the lever up again, leaving Peter pant and sob in relief as his body slumps in the chair, small and painful whimpers escaping his tiny figure before his eyes goes shut, dead weight in the chair as he passes out of from the pain. 

There's a stunned silence, all of the team sharing equal tears streaming down their faces. Beck looks at Peter up and down, before he grabs Peter's head and turns it towards him, he drags a thumb across the boys cheekbone, and a small, satisfied smile marries the maniac's face. "Huh, no scars, perfect." he murmurs, and Tony sees red. 

Beck turns his gaze towards the camera again, tilting his head with a smirk on his face, before he says, "I hope you enjoy the show, Stark, don't worry, I won't let you miss the next one." And with that, the screen goes black. 

They all stands there, frozen. Thousands of emotions hitting them all at once as they stare at the black screen. 

_Rage..._

_Murder..._

_Helplessness..._

_Horror..._

"Did you track the video, FRIDAY?" Tony growls quietly. 

FRIDAY pauses. "I am unable to do that, boss, something is messing with my radar." 

Tony snaps his gaze towards the ceiling, clenching his fists, "Reboot it and try again, find any worm-hole you _can_ to get a location, I don't care if it's illegal." He snaps. 

He returns his gaze to find everyone looking at him, concern and fear written on their faces. They all stare at each other for a while, before Steve speaks up. 

"Tony, are you alright?" 

Tony looks at him like he's crazy. 

_"Alright?_ I just watched my kid get electrocuted and _tortured,_ all because I didn't consider that _maybe_ the guy who I never featured in his own project three years ago might not like that, so _no,_ I'm not alright." He snaps, crossing his arms over his chest as he takes in a deep breath. 

The team goes quiet. 

"It wasn't your fault, Tony." Bruce pipes up, sympathy written in his features as he looks at him. 

Tony scoffs. "How the fuck is this not my fault?" 

"You couldn't possibly have expected this to happen, and even if you did, Peter would've had to go around with constant security around him at all times just because he _might_ have been kidnapped one day?" Steve argued. 

Tony scoffs again. "Yeah, and that would have been way better." 

"You mean you would've rather taken away Peter's freedom just because someone may have planned to take him?" Steve asked sternly. 

"No, someone _may_ not have taken him, Peter _is_ taken, and right now, my kid is sitting bound to a chair, either unconscious or in pain, because _my_ enemy decided to use him as a _pawn,_ and it is all my fault!" He snaps, squeezing his eyes shut. 

It _is_ all his fault, Peter wouldn't have been taken if Tony had given him some more protection, Peter wouldn't have been taken if Tony had just taken a moment to _think_ for a second, Peter wouldn't have been taken if he never _met Tony._

Tony feels the air leave his body when that thought crosses him, but as he thinks about it, he's right. If Peter never came to know Tony, Peter wouldn't have been in danger, if Tony had just given him the suit back after the ferry incident without another word, Peter wouldn't have been here in this moment, hurt, scared, and in _pain._

Guilt wells up in his stomach, tearing him apart because he _knows,_ none of this would've happened if Tony hadn't decide to bring a fifteen year old into a fight, Peter would have been home with his aunt, alive, okay and _safe._ It hurts to think about, just the thought of not being able to wake up into a life where Peter isn't at his side, in the lab when they work on their next project, on the couch during a movie marathon, on the balcony as they look out over the city moving below them. Peter is his life saver, and Tony is _failing him, again._

Fuck, he's no better than Howard in any situation right now. 

"Tony," A voice says, snapping him out of his thoughts. He looks up to see Bruce standing in front of him, there's something like understanding behind his eyes, and Bruce grips Tony's shoulders, looking him straight in the eye. "I know what it's like, to blame yourself for things that's way out of your control just because you have a connection with it," He knows Bruce was referring to the hulk. "But listen to me, to _us,_ when we say this, none of this, not one bit is your fault," Bruce grips harder on his shoulders. 

"We _know_ you rather die than letting Peter get hurt, _Peter_ knows, but if you want him back, if you want your _child_ back then you need to stop blaming yourself. I know you're going through a lot right now, but we're here for you, and you're there for Peter, so we can't give up now, okay?" 

Tony stares at him, doubt crossing his mind over and over as he looks into Bruce's brown (and somewhat green) eyes. They're all staring back, probably waiting for him to say something, but Tony just stands there, petrified, mad and _terrified._

He needs Peter back or he'll break, he knows that, Peter has always been good at keeping him steady, taking him by his arms and guiding him out of his lab when he's been awake for three days in a row, wordlessly tucking himself into Tony's side when he wakes up screaming from a nightmare, holding his hands when they just won't stop shaking until they're steady again. 

Peter has always stayed on his side, no matter what, because that's who Peter Parker is. 

_"Tony, I would rather die than leave you here to fucking blow up!"_

Tony blinks a few times, the memory hitting him like a rock. Peter had said those words, right after a brutal fight with a maniac who'd been doing multiple bombings around the city for over a month, and the Avengers had finally tracked him down. They ended up fighting in some old abandoned nuclear factory that apparently every villain loved to use as a lair, and Tony had almost sacrificed himself when he'd been about to pull the trigger on the bomb to kill the guy. 

But before he knew it, Peter had swung in and webbed the guy up before he'd dragged Tony out of there, his face grim as they hurried out before the bomb exploded. Tony had been mad at him first for risking his life like that, but Peter had immediately snapped back at him with an expression so furious and terrified it had left Tony floored.

Peter had been angry for days after that, always glaring at him but still making sure he was alright when he'd been bedridden in the Medbay since the fight had left him more injured than he'd been in a while. Peter had spent his days and nights in a chair beside him, even when he was asked if he wanted to take a break from watching Tony the kid had firmly placed his feet on the ground and not moving an inch. 

_The kid had been mad at him, furious that Tony had tried to sacrifice himself, and yet he still never left his side._

Shame fills his body, because Peter did everything for him, and yet here Tony was, searching and searching for Peter and he still hasn't found him yet, Peter had sacrificed his life for him multiple times and yet the kid was _still_ missing, he was missing and he was being _tortured,_ and Tony had never felt so ashamed like he did in this moment. 

He watches the team, all still staring at him as they wait for him to do the next move, but Tony can't bring himself to look at them. He retreats his gaze to the large panorama windows showing the snow-covered city getting lit up by the evening sun, his heart clenching as he remembers watching Spider-Man swing by him just a week ago, totally unaware of the horrors the kid would endure in only a few days. 

His breath catches in his throat, and fuck, he needs to get out of here, he needs to breathe, he can't save Peter if he doesn't breathe, he can't-

"I-I, I need to go, I need some air." He stutters, taking one last look at the team before he turns around and starts running away.

He can hear the team yelling after him, but he doesn't care, he just keeps running through the penthouse, sprinting past the white washed walls Peter had insisted to decorate with multiple merchandise paintings of the Avengers, not sparing a glance at neither of them as he heads to the elevator. 

He steps inside it before the team can catch up on him, breathlessly telling FRIDAY to take him to his floor he shares with Pepper and Peter (when the kid spends his nights here). He leans back against the wall of the elevator to catch his breath, inhaling heavily through his nose as he closes his eyes. He doesn't know what he's doing, but he needs to get _away,_ away from this whole mess and away from his failure, because that's what Tony Stark does, running from his problems and let someone else take care of them. 

He's selfish, selfish. He's the most selfish human being and now the world wants to punish him for it, _selfish-selfish-selfish-_

"Boss, you have arrived on your floor." FRIDAY informs him. 

Tony opens his eyes as he stumbles out of the elevator, his lungs screaming for air even though he's inhaling it. Fuck, he needs a drink, he needs his mind to shut up, but he remembers the off-hand comment Peter made the other day, when Clint had spiked his coke to see how long before Peter noticed, the kid didn't even drink it before he immediately backtracked, asking why the fuck his senses was going off. 

And when Clint got disappointed and told Peter what he'd tried to do, Peter had only nodded in understanding and said:

_"Oh yeah, that makes sense."_

Tony had looked at him weirdly, asking:

_"How the hell does any of that make sense?"_

Peter chuckled a bit sheepishly:

_"Well I mean, you're technically drinking poison, so I guess that's why it's reacting to it."_

He can't drink, it's poison, and poison kills you, and if he dies he can't save Peter. 

Tony stumbles through the floor, the only thing his mind's registering being a constant loop of _Where's Peter, where's Peter, where's Peter?_

He ends up in front of a door, he doesn't register who's door it is before he pushes it open and stares into a big bedroom,

_Peter's bedroom._

The walls are painted in a sky-blue color, in the middle of the room against the right wall sits a queen-sized bed neatly made with a white bedspread and a navy-blue comforter folded over it at the foot of the bed.

Peter had always been weirdly tidy for a teenage boy, apparently his aunt had tried to bang it in his head since he was ten so that it would always be with him the older he got, which in turn made Peter's room always look clean and ordered but still with a personality the kid somehow managed to keep.

The wall opposite from him was just a huge window showing of the big city, the sunlight glaring through it in a yellow tone as it peers up behind the buildings. There's a TV situated on the left wall in front of the bed, a bookcase on the left side of it and a desk with a laptop and textbooks on the right.

In the left corner closest to Tony, there's a door is situated there which leads to a bathroom that's almost as big as this room, Tony smiles a little at the memory of a wide-eyed Peter looking over his bedroom with a childlike wonder. 

_"Mr Stark, this is bigger than my apartment!"_

There's a bedside-table next to the bed, decorated with a lamp and the book _To kill a mocking bird_ Peter has in assignment for his English class. There's also a small miniature tree-lounger on the table, painted white with the text "Phone-Rest" at the foot of it, a charger sticking through the small planks where Peter can put his phone and charge it over night. It had been a birthday gift from Clint, apparently they guy had seen it in a store and then scoffed at the prize before making one himself back at his own home. 

(Peter had literally ran off in the middle of the gifts-opening just so he could immediately put it on the table.)

Contrary to popular belief, Peter's walls _aren't_ decorated with Star-Wars postures, much to Tony's surprise. Peter apparently _isn't_ a big Star Wars nerd as Tony first had thought, according to the kid he just knows a bunch of facts about it because Ned loves it.

Sure, the kid thinks it's alright, but apparently he loves Star Treck and BBC's Sherlock more, which just reminds Tony how _big_ Peter's heart is, sitting through movies and know a bunch of stuff about them even though Peter doesn't really like them that much in the first place, just so his friend can have someone to hype with.

Instead, Peter's walls are decorated with his own pictures he's taken ever since Tony got him a SLR camera when Peter had made a off-hand comment about wanting one. While the kid had whined at him for just throwing money away like that, the kid had loved it and immediately had started to take pictures at everything he loves (Tony tries not to think about how he's on at least ten of the different photos),the kid is really good at it too, some pictures taking in almost processional angles and lighting. 

He remembers how eager Peter had been when he'd asked Tony to print out the pictures, how that childish spark that Tony adored immediately had taken over his features and made him look ten years younger, like he wasn't a kid thrown into adulthood earlier than what should be normal. 

Tears forms in his eyes as he looks around the room, so full of innocence and brightness and everything that makes up Peter Parker. He hates that there's a chance he may never see it again, that Peter may never come back again, or that the kid may never _get_ it back again, but Tony would be damned if he didn't try every second to get the kid back, to get _his_ kid back, 

Peter meant everything, 

_And he sure as hell won't lose him now._

* * *

Days goes by, or at least, Peter thinks so. 

He hasn't gotten anything to eaten, and his stomach aches from hunger. His muscles burns from the electricity and his abdomen hurts from the stab-wound that still hasn't fully healed yet, probably from the lack of food. He doesn't have much energy to do anything than just sit in this god-forbidden chair and wait for Beck to come and be all maniacally again.

His mind keeps playing a bunch of different scenarios when Tony'll come and rescue him. He imagines strong hands tilting up his head, warm brown eyes full of assurance looking into his like he's _precious,_ like Tony always does when they make eye-contact. He imagines a soothing voice telling him he's okay and that everything will be alright, and then his body will be free from these goddamn cuffs and strong arms will lift him up and get him the hell out of here. 

His ears are straining for any sound that can potentially be the Iron-Man armor or widow bites buzzing in the distance, something that tells him he's safe, but every time he thinks he hears them they cut off, and he's left in a quiet void of his thoughts and the agonizing ache in his body. 

His mind sometimes drift off to his friends, he keeps imagining all the stuff they've done, all the stuff they plan to do, ice-skating in central park, going on a trip to Europe, graduating, getting into college, partying until both Ned and Michelle are drunk and him laughing at their offended faces when he still stands there sobered.

He promised himself he would never take that for granted again. 

Him and Ned had always joked about their future, how they've promised each other to grow old together and Michelle popping in and asking if she should just break up right away so she can spare a heart break. His friends meant everything to him, they were his family, and God does he wish for them to just be here right now with him. 

guilt consumes him immediately at the thought, though, a voice interrupting, _No, no, he cannot let them come here, not to this hellhole or that lunatic a few rooms away!_

He doesn't want them here, he just wants to be home. 

Footsteps coming towards him snaps him out of his thoughts, and Peter can feel something like hope bloom in his chest, but it disappears immediately when Beck suddenly slams open the door in front of him, marching in in all of his disgusting glory. There's a sickly smile on his face, and Peter has never wanted to punch someone so badly as he does in this moment when the lunatic looks him over, satisfaction filling his features. 

"You know, for being Spider-Man, I'm kinda surprised you haven't gotten out of those cuffs yet." Beck smirks, tilting his head.

Peter just glares at him "You've kidnapped an enhanced, even _you_ wouldn't be that stupid to not use vibranium or whatever the fuck these cuffs are made out of." He deadpans. 

Beck just keeps smirking. "Well aren't you observant, huh?" He pauses for a moment, seeming to debate something in his head, before he starts walking towards him, a small smile marries his face when he's standing in front of him. Peter glares through the whole ordeal, hating that he can't do anything other than just sit around and take the punches that gets thrown his way. 

He watches as Beck smiles at him, before the man brings up his hand to caress Peter's cheek, making Peter flinch away from the contact. He desperately pushes unwelcome memories down in the process, a shiver running through his spine as his senses keeps warning him.

"Don't touch me." Peter spits out, keeping his head away from Beck's hand. 

Beck huffs. "Relax, Parker, I'm not a pervert" 

Peter turns his head a bit to glare at him, hating how relaxed Beck looks like this. Peter doubted Beck would actually do anything remotely related to what Skip did, maybe it was his own mind simply not wanting to even think about _that_ , which in turn keeps him from worrying, or he's just really good at telling if a person is lying or not. 

It was probably the former. 

But, even so, Beck leans away a bit, still watching him but at least far away enough from Peter's comfort zone. He's wearing that smirk again, seeming to enjoy every little moment about this whole fucking mess, and Peter just wants to punch him so badly. 

Beck is suddenly reaching for something next to Peter's chair that's generally out of his view, he tenses up at first, but relaxes a bit when he sees that all the man is holding is a fucking folding chair that apparently was just laying around somewhere. He folds it up until he's sitting in front of Peter on it, and actually has the audacity to sit with the back of the chair between his legs, like he's a cop intimidating a suspect or something. 

Peter physically has to hold himself from rolling his eyes. 

Beck leans forward a bit, tilting his head with a wide grin on his face as he starts talking, "You know, I did read about you're case with that Westcott guy a while ago," Peter feels his face drain from blood as his gaze snaps towards Beck's. 

_What?_

"Some pretty awful stuff there, it must have been hard." Beck gives him a look of faux sympathy, Peter hates how much it looks legit. "I read the guy was never arrested, too. That's a shame, I could have brought him here, let you get up from the chair and watch you beat him half to death... But unfortunately he moved do DC, and I would hate to drive that far." Beck shrugs. Peter looks away from him, forcing his breaths to calm down when he feels them picking up speed. 

"What did the report say? Oh right, 'Steven Westcott, released from all his charges as his parents have payed his debt, no punishment will lead his way, Steven is a free man who can do whatever the fuck he wants, Mister Westcott will-" 

"Stop it." Peter cuts off, feeling himself on the verge of a panic attack. He squeezes his eyes shut, clenching his fists. 

Beck goes quiet though, and Peter finally thinks he's done and will leave again, but instead he feels something touch his head again. Peter flinches, still not opening his eyes before the hand comes back again, a bit more possessive as it starts to drag itself through his hair, just like Tony used to do. 

Beck's voice comes back, way quieter than before as he says, "I heard your Uncle got upset... What did he do? Scream? Punch something? I bet you were scared, seeing the man who was the closest to a father lose it in front of your own eyes, knowing that it was all your fault-"

"I said _stop it."_ His voice breaks at the end, and he pulls away from Beck's hand again, turning his gaze away in the process. Beck doesn't seem to like his actions, though, and instead uses his hand to grab a fistful of Peter's hair, forcing their gazes at each other. Peter grunts, desperately holding back the whimper that almost escapes him when he sees the irritation bleed out of Beck's eyes. 

Beck starts to get louder. "How does it feel, Petey? knowing the guy who ruined everything in your life gets to walk around free while _you_ have to live with the consequences?" Fear wells up in his stomach as he sees Beck's eyes grow darker. "Isn't it hard, waking up every morning knowing that your life could have been perfect, but instead it's _gone_ and you're alone? Don't you just wanna _lose_ it, destroy everything in your path until you're the only one standing, letting everyone know that _you're_ the one in _charge?"_ He spits. 

"Shut up!" Peter cries, pain flaring in his head as Beck grabs his hair harder. 

Beck yanks painfully at his hair one last time before he lets go, but when Peter thinks he's done, pain flares up in his cheek as his head gets snapped to the side, making Peter cry out. 

"That's how I feel." Beck grunts, before he slaps him again. "Stark promised me a future, and I did everything to fulfill it, but when I wasn't useful anymore he took a hammer and he destroyed all my dreams, my legacy, _my_ future!" Another slap, Peter whimpers. "All I wanted was to be seen, all I wanted was for _someone_ to notice me!" A third one. "Stark took everything from me, you'll never understand my pain, my humiliation!" Peter cries out as the forth one snaps his head to the other side, pain flaring up in his head. 

Beck is screaming now, but he can't focus on much else than the oncoming blows hitting his head. He squeezes his eyes shut, desperately holding his tongue from begging, even though his head screams at him for relief. Beck is getting rougher, the slaps growing harder as his voice get's more furious, and Peter just wants it to end. 

He grunts in pain when a hand grabs his hair again and pulls his head up, making him look straight into the madman's eyes. There's a thunder in them, sparkling in anger before he slams Peter head against the chair. 

"But you don't understand do you? You'll never understand, _no one_ understands!"

Peter cries out, white hot pain fills his head, exploding into stars. Beck yanks his head forward before slamming into the metal chair once again, making darkness surround his vision and thoughts for a moment. Peter gasps, squeezing his eyes shut before his head is slammed back against the chair a third time.

"Stark ruined _everything!"_

His ears ring, black and white filling his vision as his head pounds from the force.

_"Everything!"_

it's getting darker, and he barley registers the forth time his head is forced back and slammed against the blood stained metal behind his head. 

He cries out, even though he barley hears his voice, the darkness gets heavier, his thoughts disappearing, and the last thing he sees is Beck's darkened eyes and mad grin, the picture not leaving him when he's fully consumed in darkness.

_"This the Endgame, Petey, and I'll make sure you won't get through it! "_

Peter doesn't register the next time his head is bashed, nor the blood streaming down the back of his head, staining Tony's MiT sweater all over. 

* * *

Tony feel lost. Utter, completely lost as he stares at the sun rising up behind the city, painting the buildings in a warm, yellow light. He hasn't slept much, nor has the team as they've been looking for Peter for over a week now. 

One week has gone, and they haven't found Peter yet.

One week has gone, and Peter's still in Beck's hands. 

One week has gone... And it's the first day of December, when Christmas is gleaming in the horizon as stores and restaurants starts to _really_ decorate every inch they can find, telling the world that the day when happy children will bounce down the stairs and a big old dude with white beard and looks like a drug addict will break into peoples houses and give naughty kids coal is just a few weeks ahead. 

And Peter used to love every second of it. 

He'd celebrated one Christmas with Peter before, which had been the last one. It had been in the beginning when their relationship finally had settled to something comfortable, and Peter had stopped walking on eggshells around him.

He'd invited the Parkers for Christmas with him and the team, since it also would be the first Christmas after the whole Siberia shit-show for the Avengers. Peter had jumped around cheerfully in a way only Peter Parker can and had immediately lighten up the whole room to something even brighter. 

Even Natasha had cracked the most sincere smile Tony has ever seen on her.

But right now, the team isn't smiling at all. 

They've all gone to take a break, catching a few shut-eyes or filling their bodies with nutrients so they don't die from starvation. Natasha and Steve has taken the task to analyze the video from Beck, since Nat's incredibly observant and Steve doesn't start screaming the moment he sees Peter hurt. 

(Unlike himself.) 

Right now, Tony is lying in Peter's bed, he doesn't know why, but he feels closer to him somehow, the scent of Peter engraved in the sheets is somehow keeping him from unraveling, his mind imaging for a moment it's actually _Peter_ who's here and not just some sheets the kid always snuggles himself up in until he looks like a tiny Burrito. 

His gaze is fixated on the ceiling, painted in a dark blue color with small lamps spread all over it like they're stars. Peter had mentioned once that he's never seen the stars outside of his Spider-suit before, thanks to the billions of lights lighting up the city making it too bright to see the sky on a clear night, so Tony had decided to make a remake of Peter's room, painting the ceiling and connect tiny small lamps to it. 

Peter had loved it, his eyes lighting up in that adorable way that always makes Tony's heart melt. He'd hugged him tight until his ribs started to bruise, but Tony didn't have the heart to complain, instead he let himself marveling at the way his heart was shining with brightness inside him. 

The kid had always been clingy, whether he was just walking down the streets with Tony or working in the lab, there was always an arm bumping into his, a head on his shoulder when they sat down, a hand around his bicep. Tony knew it had to do with Peter's separation anxiety, wanting to appreciate every second of familiar touches if he ever lost them, even though Tony had promised him he wouldn't go anywhere. 

He hated how everything he'd told Peter was just straight up lies, right now. 

Tony sighs, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes as he swears softly, feeling fucking useless just laying here in his misery. He knows there isn't much else to do, other than pumping out billions of a missing posters all over the goddamn city. Pepper is already working on getting a missing alert on the news in case any introverts have also seen Peter anywhere, (and also to make the statement even more important), but other than that, there wasn't anything else to do, instead he has to just sit around and wait for something, for a hope,

For a miracle. 

But if there is one thing Tony Stark knows, it's that miracles are just a bunch of bullshits that never comes true. 

So instead he lies there, on top of milky-white sheets with the scent of a lost child as he stares up at the artificial stars, dutifully ignoring the tear running down his cheek. He turns around so he's laying on his side, grabbing one of the pillows under the bed-spread and shoves his head into it, a scream getting muffled by the soft fabric. 

He doesn't cry, he's already done that enough. Instead he lies there, closing his eyes and breathing in the feeling of his child on a lazy Sunday morning, walking into the kitchen with curls sticking up everywhere and a zombie-like posture as he mushes his face into Tony's chest, not giving a damn about the cooing Avengers sitting around the kitchen island and watching the moment unfold.

He closes his eyes, cursing at the world for being so _unfair,_ and falls asleep with a frown on his face. 

In the darkness, he hears Peter's voice,

_"Tony, please find me."_

He wishes he knew how to answer. 

* * *

Pain is slicing in his back, aching in his arms, scratching in his throat. 

He's on his knees with his hands in front of him, stripped down to his boxers as he's hunched over on the cold and dirty ground. The sounds of whips is echoing around the room, but the pain that comes after almost makes it mute to his ears as he cries out. Beck laughs every time a hit strikes, but his body hurts to much for him to care. 

He can't bring to hold himself up anymore, and his arms gives up as he falls to ground, another wave of pain flaring in his stomach as he hits the floor. Beck is screaming at him, but he doesn't hear, instead he's just lying boneless as more and more hits strikes his back, no doubt creating scars that rivals the single one he has on his hip. 

He used to call what Skip did torture, he guesses this counts like that too. 

* * *

The days goes by, and the team doesn't know what to do. 

They barley communicate other than updating each other about the progress in Peter's disappearance, and no one seems to want to try to, either, since Peter is probably the only thing going around in their heads right now.

May moves into the tower, after Pepper had gotten a call from a sobbing May Parker in the middle of the night after she'd opened Peter's bedroom door and thought he would be there. She'd gotten the room next to Peter, but according to FRIDAY she spends more time in her nephews rather than her's. 

Tony wouldn't exactly say he was a stranger to that feeling. 

He hadn't crawled into Peter's bed anymore after that, but one night when Pepper had been gone to Washington for a SI meeting, Tony had woken up from a nightmare that had him shoving off his bed sheets and stumbled all the way to Peter's room without even realizing it. And, when he'd opened Peter's door and find May peering sleepily up at him, trying to excuse himself out of the situation, May had only stretched out her hand towards him, a silent invitation to feel their child again. 

Together, they laid in their boy's bed, mourning quietly as their hands grasped at each other. 

Tony didn't sleep that night though, instead he just looked up at the stars on the ceiling shining almost magically through the darkness of the room. Tony had put his heart into making them perfect when he'd designed the way they would lit up, not too bright to be piercing through your eyelids, or lighting up anything except themselves as they glimmered in the darkness, hell, he'd even make them glistering a bit, a touch that made them ten times more magical than ever. 

He understood now why Peter loved them so much. There was something calm with looking at them, like they were small night-lights lighting up the darkness, keeping the monsters away. Stars had always terrified him after the whole attack of New York happened, but laying here, with his kid's scent and his voice talking in the back of his mind, the stars didn't scare him, they gave him strength and bravery, knowing that even though Peter wasn't here, they were still under the same sky, waiting for each other. 

And when Tony fell asleep, a smile had married his face. 

He wondered when Peter would come home, 

He was almost done with patrol, right? 

* * *

Peter can't breathe. 

He's ears and mouth are filled with a liquid as his lungs are screaming for air. There's a hand holding him down at the base of his neck, pushing him into the water-filled sink as his chest is pressed against the hard material painfully. He tries to jerk away, pushing himself up with all his might with his hands, but he's weak, Beck made sure of that, he hasn't gotten anything to eaten and his body is already to the point where he can barely stand on his own, let alone keeping himself conscious for a long period of time. 

The water's cold, and it's biting at his skin as he tries to slam his palms against the sink, but Beck doesn't let go. He can't breath and his body is running out of air and oh god he don't want to die, he don't want do die, _he don't want to die, he don't-_

His lungs spasms, his body arching back as he chokes out the last of his air, but the hand doesn't let go. His lungs keeps screaming, the pain in his body growing stronger as darkness starts to interrupt his vision once again, when the hand suddenly disappears.

Another one grabs his hair painfully before hauling him up out the sink, relief hitting him like a rock as he get's thrown on the ground, coughing and wheezing in air as tears streams down his face. He shivers from the cold and immediately crawls in on himself, ignoring Beck standing only a few feet away from him who's breathing heavily through his mouth. 

It's quiet for a while, before Beck huffs and starts to move towards him. The man grabs onto his bicep painfully, before he starts dragging Peter after him, Peter tries to wiggle himself out of his hold but Beck just grabs harder, he tries not to think about the fact that he's become light enough to be carried around like a rag.

They make their ways through dozens of different hallways and rooms, until Beck suddenly stops in front of something, Peter's too tired to care though, and instead just lays limply in Beck's hold. 

The sound of a door opening barley registers in Peter's brain, before he's suddenly thrown into something. He lands on the ground with a hard thud, his body exploding into pain once again as he slams onto the floor. He groans, the sound of a door slamming shut echoing around the room before he realizes he's alone. 

Peter curls up on the ground, wheezing in breaths as he shivers on the ground. A sob escapes him, his body wrecking through it, and Peter doesn't know what to do. He's trapped, he's alone, he's hurt and he's scared. Tony should have found him by now, the man should have burst through those doors days ago, but he's still _here._ Another sob wrecks through him, the helplessness tearing him apart on the inside. 

He wishes Tony was here, just for a moment, so he could cherish the sound of his mentor's voice, telling him to _hold on,_ and _I'm there soon, Pete, I'm coming,_ or just a _you'll be alright._ But he gets nothing, and Peter cries, just like he always have.

Cries: When his Parents said goodbye before hopping into the taxi. 

Cries: When he's alone in his bedroom, scared, in pain and confused after the game he and Skip played. 

Cries: When uncle Ben is bleeding out on the streets in front of him, his hands stained with blood as he begs Ben to hold on. 

Peter Parker had always thought he knew what pain felt like after another one of his tragedies, but every time he's proven wrong.

So he does what he does best, he cries and he cries until his throat is so raw he can't let out anything else than soundless cries of air, begging for unconsciousness to consume him. 

But as he lies there on the ground, another thought suddenly pops up in his head. 

_"Please just let me die."_

He doesn't even have the time to react to the thought before he's screaming again. 

* * *

The sound of something heavy getting placed roughly on the floor gets everyone's attention. 

The whole team snaps their gazes up from their searching, all eyes landing on Clint who's currently standing in the middle of the living room, sorrow written on his face as he points down at the box in front of him. 

"What's that, Clint?" Steve asks carefully. 

Clint drags a hand through his hair. "It's Christmas soon, so... I mean we can't let-" He clears his throat, "We can't let Peter come home without having the tower decorated, right?" He looks at the team, grief marrying there faces. 

Sam sighs. "Clint-" 

"Just, please," Clint turns his gaze to Tony. "Stark?" He asks, voice strained. 

Tony stares at the box, the emptiness expanding in his chest. They didn't know when they would find Peter, ~~if they ever would~~ , it could be days or weeks, but the thought of Peter coming home without Christmas screaming in the air just wasn't imaginable, it felt like a crime against humanity, even. 

So, with a heavy heart, Tony nodded in agreement. Ignoring the pained expressions everyone wears as they start digging through the box.

Hours later, Pepper comes home, exhausted from the worry of Peter and the stress the company's receiving every time Christmas is near, only to find the whole team asleep in the living room surrounded by Christmas ornaments and blinking lights everywhere. Her eyes wells up in tears when she sees Tony on the couch, squeezing a small box wrapped up in red and blue paper, no doubt the present he bought a month back to give Peter at Christmas. 

Clint is the only one awake, his posture tense as he sits with his laptop on a table. He turns around when he hears her, and Pepper smiles sadly at him. Clint nods in return before going back, Pepper pretends not to hear the silent sob escaping him. 

Clint pretends to not hear hers, either. 

The hope is starting to fade. 

* * *

Peter screams. 

He screams from the heat burning his skin, he screams from the pain dancing around his body. 

It's all he ever does, he screams and he cries, his thoughts no longer audible even in his own mind as Beck keeps hitting him with the burning coal. 

He doesn't hear Tony's voice anymore, he doesn't think he'll ever hear it again. 

The only thing that he can still hear in his busted mind, is the never ending mantra of:

 _Please just let me die, please just let me die, please just let me die!_

He says it once out loud, but Beck just laughs and shakes his head. 

He can't feel anything anymore, anyway, it's only a matter of time before he can't do anything, either. 

Peter ignores the flare of relief sparkling up in his chest at the thought. 

* * *

It's the thirteen of December,

and they finally have a lead.

It's the saint Lucia holiday in northern Europe, when a girl dressed in white came in to a bunch of death-sentenced prisoners and lit up the cell with candles on her head. She offered them buns made of saffron and calmed them on their last night in life, telling them that God was waiting for them with opened arms. 

Some even say she helped them escape, lighting up their way through the darkened hallways until they all ran free into the night. 

Peter had always loved researching different holidays around the world, rambling about the facts here and then on lab-days. 

It was the thirteen of December, the day when a miracle saved a bunch of prisoners, and Tony might finally be able to save his own. 

Natasha and Steve had spied on a couple of people from the school to look for any liars, only to find the same dude they'd been talking with in the security room at the school, talking on the phone in a weird way. 

He'd been talking in coded sentences, until Nat managed to translate what he meant when she realized he'd been mentioning a "castle" seven times in the same call. 

"Yes, they haven't suspected the castle yet." 

"No, the castle is empty." 

"I promise they haven't gone near the castle once."

And so he went on, reassuring whoever was on the other line on the phone that the "castle" was safe. 

The security guy had lied to them, the same guy who somehow didn't see a bunch of armed men walking through the entrance before he got _unconscious_ , the same guy who didn't even bat an eye when the Avengers had towered around him, the same guy who, despite having been hit in the head, still sat in front of all the footage of the school when Tony, Steve and Nat had arrived. 

And as it turns out, they guy had been working with Beck all along. 

Tony feels shame well up in his veins when he realized how _stupid_ they'd been, since their lead had been sitting only a few feet in front of them weeks ago, and yet they had looked right past it because everything had been a big fucking mess, and the silence without Peter had been unbearable to deal with. 

But now, the hope is starting to grow again. 

Tony smiles the first time in days. 

* * *

"Do you know how many days have gone?" Beck asks, sitting on a chair just a few feet away from him while feeding him for the first time in days, which is basically just Beck holding a spoon as he feeds Peter with some kind of chicken soup. Peter isn't even tied to his own chair, apparently Beck didn't think he was strong enough to be a threat anymore. 

He was probably right. 

Peter shakes his head as he stares into Beck's eyes, his throat too raw for him to speak. 

Beck smirks, tilling his head. "Of course you don't, what was I thinking?" He brings up another spoon to Peter's mouth. "It's the thirteen of December, you and I have been together for three weeks now." He chuckles at Peter's eyes widening in surprise, "Oh, yes, quiet a long time, isn't it? I'm surprised Stark hasn't tried to steel you away from me, yet." 

Panic searches through Peter's veins. _Three weeks? Three fucking weeks?_ It can't possibly be that long, _where the fuck was Tony?_

"What?" Peter's voice barley comes out as a whisper, but Beck catches it anyways. 

He smiles "I guess you weren't that important to him after all, where you?" Beck leans forward with his hand before he wipes a tear streaming down Peter's cheek. Peter doesn't flinch away, instead he just sits there, frozen, his mind going in 300 M.P.H because _no,_ he couldn't possibly have been here for three weeks, Tony should have found him, he should have busted through that door and beat the shit out of Beck weeks ago, and yet, Peter's still here with this goddamn lunatic. 

Horror is suddenly filling his body. 

What if Tony doesn't come? what if he won't find him? What if he finds him too late and Peter's dead? He wouldn't care if Beck killed him, but he knew Tony would. He didn't want to bring that pain to the man, even though there's a small voice in the back of his head saying:

_"What if Tony haven't found you yet because he doesn't want to?"_

He forced himself not to listen to it, but doubt was already running his mind as he kept asking whoever was up there as to _why the fuck this happened? What the hell did he ever do that made him deserve this pain?_

Beck smiles lightly at his petrified face, and Peter feels like he's been paralyzed all over again. Horror is consuming him, the panic that he may never leave this place is swallowing him whole as he stares into the same eyes he's seen every day of every week, the same eyes that brought him pain and numbness and helpless all mixed into one. He doesn't feel like a hero anymore, because what hero just sits around and waits for someone else to save him? 

The thought makes him feel more pathetic than ever, because he's suppose to be _Spider-Man_ and yet he just keeps taking the punches and letting Beck fucking _feed_ him like he's a three year old. 

Beck moves to pick up some more soup with the spoon, when everything suddenly clicks back into his head. Peter's eyes widen, and he can hear his senses screaming:

_Get out, get out, get oUT, GET OUT, GET OUTGETOUTGETOUT!_

Peter's breath hitch, and everything starts to move in slow motion as his instincts suddenly kicks in when he realize he can just run out of the room _right now!_

Peter sees Beck starting to look up from the bowl, before rage suddenly fills his body. He watches the man that took him, he watches the lunatic that had hurt him over and over because he wanted Tony to hurt, bringing up the spoon from the bowl and starts to move it towards him, but Peter doesn't wait another second, before he moves his weakened arms and punches Beck square in the nose. 

It's not close to being powerful, and his hand starts to ache when he comes in contact with Beck's face, but Beck falls back in his chair anyway, and Peter starts _running._

He bolts up from the chair and starts scrambling towards the door, yanking the handle open with a new found strength he didn't know he had as he hears Beck scream bloody murderer behind him. He doesn't look back, instead he runs through the door and into the hallway in front of him. 

He has no idea where the exit is, but he can't stop as his senses keeps screaming at him in his head to just _run._ Beck is behind him, yelling and spitting but Peter hears none of it, he just keeps bolting through the big metal building, his eyes scanning for something like an exit. 

He makes his way up a few stairs, maybe if he got onto the roof he could climb down the side of it, and Beck wouldn't have any other option than to run down the stairs again, and Peter would be far gone. 

His steps are echoing through the building along with Beck as they both race up the stairs, one screaming like a maniac and the other running for dear life. He can't believe he may get out, he can't believe this may be it. Something like hope sparks in his chest, and Peter starts pushing his body further, his muscles burning but he doesn't care, he can get out and this whole thing will just be a nightmare, he won't die in the middle of some abandoned building, he won't have to go away as the boy who disappeared and never came back.

He'll finally be Peter Parker again, the boy who never gives up in his tragedies. 

Peter lets out a hysterical laugh at the thought, hope flaming in his chest as he keeps racing up the stairs. He arrives at the top of the building and stops for a second to catch his breath, he can hear Beck way further down than he is, and something like satisfaction fills his features at the thought of finally beating the man. 

He doesn't stay long though, and he keeps running again. 

There's no lamps on this floor, only the bright white light of the outside world is lighting up the long corridor. He wants to look outside, he wants to cherish the world he'll soon join again, but Beck is behind him and his mind is screaming at him so he keeps his gaze in front of him, seeing a door at the end of the hallway with two big windows on each side, meaning there _is_ a roof. 

He goes faster, faster than he's ever run before, and all his mind his thinking is: _I'm coming home, I'm coming home, I'm coming home!_

He can't feel anything else other than the pure happiness filling his body, he's only a few steps in front of the door before he's there.

With one fast motion, Peter breaks the lock with his newly-found strength before he slams it open, and is met with a cool breeze hitting him immediately. He brings his hands up to his arms and starts sprinting on the snow-covered roof he has arrived on. He sees the edge a few feet in front of him, and he runs, runs and runs until he's at it. Peter jumps up on the thick fence around the roof and looks over the building, 

but the hope suddenly bursts into pieces, and Peter has never wanted to start screaming so badly. 

Peter looks out only too find a huge snow-covered yard on the ground, stretching it far away from the building. Around the yard there's big stone-walls encircling the whole building, on top of them there's a small iron fence that's sounding like they're electric, he can hear it, even from this far, and with a pang in his heart Peter realizes what kind of building he's standing on. 

He's standing on the top of a fucking Prison. 

"No..." Peter says as he stares dumbfounded over the yard, "no, no, no, no..." He keeps chanting, the sky as gray as his mind is for the moment, "no, no, no, no, NO!" He screams because _NO, this can't be happening, he's so close he's almost out, he's almost out he's almost out he's-_

A noise goes of in his ears, and his muscles stiffs. His hands falls to his side as his face goes slack, before his knees buckles and he slams against the ground. His gaze is stuck on the sky above him, before Beck comes into his view, holding the same paralyze thing he used when he'd first kidnapped him. 

His face is grim as he towers over him, pure anger and madness bleeding out of his features. Peter's heart his beating in his chest, fear and hopelessness welling up in his stomach as Beck looks at him, before the man brings up his foot and presses down hard on Peter's chest. Peter wheezes, his eyes wetting from the cold air hitting his face, and Beck seems to pause for a moment, before he grabs Peter by his collar, hauling him up with both his hands as their faces are only inches from each other. 

Beck gives him a dark look, "Don't you _ever,_ run away from me like that again you brat! You're stuck here, for ever and ever and ever until someone will come and find your corpse rotting away in on the dirty ground, do you understand?!" He yells at him, clenching harder around the collar as Peter whimpers. 

Beck's face goes darker. "I'll make sure you learn your lesson." He grumbles darkly, before he lets go of Peter as he crumbles to the ground. Beck grabs his bicep painfully, before he drags Peter across the roof and back to the door, stomping angrily as he grabs Peter harder, making another whimper escape his slack mouth. 

He's terrified, he can't think straight, all he knows is that he was _so fucking close,_ and now Beck will _never_ give him the opportunity to escape, again.

He's going to die, he'll die here and Beck will be the one killing him, he will never see Michelle and Ned again, he'll never hug May or fall asleep on Tony's shoulder again, he'll never do ballet with Natasha again when it's 3 AM and neither can sleep, or play chess with Steve as he goes more and more frustrated, he'll never walk into the living room to find Clint and someone else playing Mario Cart. 

He'll never get his life back, again. 

Peter feels a sob build up in his throat, but it lays heavy in his stomach since all he can do for the moment is just breathing. Beck is screaming above him, the hand who's not holding Peter waving furiously in the air as he drags Peter through the hall. His heart is pounding in his head, fear and terror tearing him apart as his body get's dragged over the cold and dirty floor. 

Beck is suddenly building up the pace, walking faster and more aggressively as he keeps screaming into the empty building. He lifts Peter up a bit more when they've arrived at the stairs, but otherwise Beck is just dragging him like sack down them. 

They keep walking when they're on the floor where Peter's cell is, but to his surprise they only surpass it, which makes another wave of panic rush through him when his senses starts to scream at him even louder. Beck is screaming, his footsteps are echoing on the walls, and the ache in his muscles and pain in his body, on his back and in his stomach, is all jumbled in his brain, and Peter just wants everything to be quiet. 

They keep walking until they've arrived at a door. It's in the end of the hallway, two tinted windows are decorating the door, but Peter's mind is screaming Danger as Beck slams it open, revealing a big room with multiple beds sitting in row at the wall opposite from them. There's stands with empty plastic bags that looks like IV's at each side of the beds, which makes him realize this must be the medbay in the prison.

Beck drags him to one of the beds in the middle, before he hauls him roughly up on it. Peter doesn't know what he'll do, all he can see is Beck fiddling with something beside him while grumbling under his breath. 

After a while, Beck comes into his view again, his gaze still filled with rage as he looks Peter over. He's holding something in his hand, only for him to realize it's a bundle of rope dangling from Beck's hold. Peter frowns internally when the man is suddenly moving again, but this time he's using the ropes to tie Peter down to the bed.

He ties a knot around Peter's ankles, legs, stomach and then his left arm, he doesn't tie a rope around the right one, much to Peter's confusion, instead he grabs it roughly, before stretching it out on a small table beside the bed. His senses is screaming at him to remove the arm from it's place, but the goddamn paralyzing is still keeping him frozen. 

Peter's breaths are coming in fast, his heart beating in is ears when Beck suddenly disappears again, but he can't keep himself calm for a moment since everything is making his head spin and legs wanting to just snap the ropes and run for dear life.

It happens in a moment, when Beck comes back and Peter sees what he's holding. It's a new form of terror Peter's sure he's never experienced before, one that makes his mind short-cut and lungs hitch as the feeling hits him like ton of bricks. 

Because beck is holding a fucking axe. 

Beck pounds forward, Peter watches in muted horror as the man raises the axe, holding above his head and turns towards Peter's outstretched arm. Peter somehow screams though his stiffness, his body spamming as it tries to scramble away from the scene he's about to witness, but the shock has run off, and Peter can feel how exhausted his body is from the run. 

Peter screams one last time, before Beck strikes the tool downwards and at the base of his shoulder, the sound echoing through the room that Peter's sure he'll never forget. Peter cries out, in pain, in horror in pure _agony,_ tears streaming down his face as his whole body spasms from shock, his head pounding against the back of the bed. 

He hears Beck scream, he sees red all over the place and he can barley process the pain taking over his body. His throat is sore, and darkness is suddenly invading his vision, he can't even bring himself to be thankful for the slight relief of unconsciousness, instead he lets his brain pull him over, the darkness and quiet enveloping him as he goes limp in the bed. 

And there, in the blankness of his mind; 

He prays he won't wake up again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *cough* I'm sorry.


	3. The Downfall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter sobs again, and this time he can't even push it down, and it wrecks heavily through his body, leaving him light headed for a moment. he shakes his head as tears runs down his cheeks, before he's slowly starting to put the phone away,
> 
> but then...
> 
> "Hello?"
> 
> Peter pauses with the phone in mid air when he hears the voice, and he freezes slightly. The voice sounds rough, like it just woke up, and Peter can barely believe his ears when he realizes who the voice is. 
> 
> _Tony. ___

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *gasp* What's this? I'm finally updating this? What a shock! 
> 
> Lol, yeah sorry for not updating for a while, there's no excuse, my mind was just being stupid. 
> 
> Anyway, chapter 3 is finally out and I hope you enjoy this! I'll try to update a little bit faster with the next chapter, but I can't promise anything.
> 
> Love ya! <3

Tony get's the text from Steve in the middle of the afternoon, and he frowns when he sees it. 

Today 15:34 PM.

**Cap:**

_You gotta come down here._

_We think we might have a lead._

Today 15:34 PM.

**Me:**

_You're interrogating the guy right?_

Today 15:35 PM.

**Cap:**

_Yes, and we think you might want to hear it._

Tony slams the coffee mug a bit too hard against the counter, making several of the sleep-deprived adults look up and send questionable frowns at him, which Tony immediately waves off, before he's sprinting out of the room. 

He can hear multiple confused questions getting thrown at his back, but he doesn't take another second to answer them, not when the guy from the school is finally seeming to give them a good fucking lead. Steve and Natasha has been down in that interrogation room for over eight hours, trying to get the man to budge, and now it seems like they finally have. 

_Thank god._

It's the first lead they've had in days, because they haven't made progress in _anything,_ Beck still has Peter in his hold, he's still hurting him, probably making him beg for mercy and all the other kind of shit Beck is capable of doing. 

He's only had one more video of Peter in the last two weeks that has gone, where Peter had been begging Tony to save him, all while Tony had just sat there and watched, feeling completely fucking useless as his child screamed in agony.

He pushes the thoughts away, focusing on getting himself to the interrogation as he brings up his tablet when he's entered the elevator, scrolling through the guy's information one last time. His name is Bill Harper, 36 years old and has been a security guard at midtown for over three years. He's the father of one girl and widowed, apparently the wife died in a car crash five years earlier. 

Tony haven't really been that involved in the interrogation parts, Steve and Natasha are usually the best people doing that, and now it seems like they've finally cracked him, which makes the slightest of hope grow in his stomach.

The sound of the elevator arriving snaps him out of his thoughts. 

Tony looks up to see the empty corridor of offices and a few interrogation rooms in front of him, these floors were made for S.H.I.E.L.D agents at first, but after the organisation was shut down they've stayed empty, long enough for dust to encircle the air and make the light from the windows a bit foggier, but it's the only floor with interrogation rooms in it, which is probably why they haven't shut it down completely. 

His footsteps echoes a bit in the quiet hallway, and he can hear voices at the end of it getting louder and louder, Tony picks up his speed a little at the sound. 

He stops just outside the door when he hears the guy's voice, he sounds flustered and tired, probably from the fact that he's been sitting in the same chair for over eight hours now. 

Tony takes a deep breath before he's opening the door and steps in.

What he doesn't expect to see when he looks into the room, is not just Steve and Natasha, but both Rhodey and Clint have seemed to join the party too in the most weirdest interrogation room he's ever seen.

The room's walls, floor and ceiling is all carved to the pattern of hexagons and painted in a dark grey color, for some reason, with a table in the middle where Steve and Bill are sitting at opposite ends of each other. The rest of the people in the room is towering behind Steve, all except Natasha who also has a chair but a bit further away from the table. 

Bill is sitting with his head in his hands, breathing heavily as Steve and Nat is looking sympathetically at him, much to Tony's confusion. 

"What's going on?" He asks, making everyone turn their gazes towards him. 

Steve bites his lip, looking at Tony with worry in his eyes. "We think we might know where Peter is." 

Tony stares at him. "I- Wait what? You do?" His brain can barley process what the fuck Steve just said. 

"Where he _might_ be. We're not sure." Natasha cut's in, staring at Steve. 

"Right." Steve mumbles.

Tony blinks. "Then, where is he?" Steve exchange a look with Natasha before he turns to Bill. 

"Bill?" Steve asks, "Will you tell about your daughter again?" Bill glances up at the words. 

Tony raises an eyebrow. "Daughter?" 

Bill nods before he bites his lip and looks down at his lap. "I- I may have made a mistake." At the silence that follows, Bill continues, "It's about Beck, and I'm sorry..." he trails off. 

Tony turns his gaze to Steve. "What's he talking about?" 

Steve looks at him before he glances at Bill, who doesn't seem like he'll continue, and sighs. "Bill has been helping Beck for a while, with Peter's kidnapping and the guards that busted into the school, apparently Beck contacted him before the attack-" 

"But I just wanted to save my daughter!" Bill cuts in fast. 

Steve nods at Tony's questionable gaze. "Bill got pictures of his daughter asleep in a strangers room two months ago, not hurt but still in hostage, Beck was the one sending the pictures." 

"He threatened Bill and told him he wouldn't see his daughter again if he didn't help with the kidnapping," Natasha adds, "Apparently he's been getting pictures of her every day since he took her." 

"I just- I just want her back." Bill cries, and Tony's surprised by the tears that's starting to stream down his cheeks. Rhodey walks around the table to comfort him, while he just stands there, trying to process the information. 

Tony turns his gaze to Steve. "And what about Peter? You said you knew where he is." 

Steve nods. "Bill knows where Rachel is, he just hasn't been allowed to get her," He sees Bill squeezing his eyes shut at the words, "So hopefully Peter's there too."

It grows quiet, Tony knows he shouldn't try to get his hopes up, but it feels good, that tiny ember of hope burning slightly in his stomach feels like a life saver, something that he's been desperately looking for for the past three weeks, but knows only can grow into a flame if he finds Peter again. 

He's not even sure what Peter would have wanted him to feel. Happy, obviously, but that was a foreign feeling compared to what he's been dealing with for the last weeks.

Instead he wondered if Peter would have wanted him to get his hopes up, so that the moment he finds him the feeling will grow to a thousands, or if he wanted him to keep fighting in a gray haste, just so that he won't crumble if he comes out empty handed, the hope going to a waste. 

He wishes he could get an answer. 

But he knows he won't, no matter what Peter would have done or said doesn't change the fact that Tony's into this alone, sure he has the entirety of the Avengers on his side, but they can't help him with all the stuff that's inside his head, no one ever has, not even Pepper or Peter could, the best thing they can do is quieting them for a moment, but it never leaves him, and right now it feels like it has turn the volume up to eleven and make it it's main goal to turn him deaf. 

Yeah, he definitely needs to see a therapist. 

"So... Where's the place, then?" He asks, breaking the silence that had wrapped itself around the room for a few minutes. 

They all turn to look at Bill, who seems a lot more calmer now, no longer teary or puffy eyed. 

Bill clears his throat a little. "There's a warehouse a few miles away in Jersey," He explains, "Apparently it used to be owned by Hammer Industries before they sold it or something. No one bought it, or maybe they did but it's not for use anymore. Beck messaged the address to me a while back, but I was not allowed to go near it, or he would... You know..." Bill's voice breaks a little on his last words. 

"And you're daughter has been there the whole time?" Rhodey asks from where's he's standing behind Bill. 

Bill nods. "Beck wanted me to have a strong motivation for helping him, so he made sure I knew what I would gain in the end." 

Tony stares at the man, the man who might actually be the reason to how they find Peter again, and the hope is flaming in his chest. He doesn't even try to fight it anymore. 

Because this might actually be it. 

"Well," Steve clears his throat, "Looks like we finally have a lead," Steve looks up at Tony, "This may be it, Tony." 

Tony nods, not sure if words will leave his mouth if he tried.

At that moment, Clint stands a up bit straighter, squaring his shoulders a little before turning to the others in the room, his face filled with something like determination as he says:

"Let's go get this son of a bitch." 

They arrive at the warehouse a few hours later after the conversation with Bill, and Tony can feel his heart almost beating out of his chest. 

Him and Natasha are both in disguise, hoods and sunglasses at full force as they're walking away from their car who's parked a few blocks away from the building. Their plan is simple; Tony and Natasha will take the backdoor of the building and sneak in, they're both armed with guns (just in case) while they will take down the guards protecting the abandoned building, making their way through every floor until they find Bill's daughter and Peter. 

Tony isn't wearing his armor, since they want to sneak up on them, much to his own anxiety. 

Clint is sitting on a roof a few buildings away, keeping watch so the fight doesn't escalate to the streets, while also being ready with his bow for back up. 

As this happens, Steve will be sitting in a cafe on the other side of the street, the police on hold while Natasha and Tony will do their job and clear out the building.

They don't want this to end up in any newspaper, Peter has already gotten enough attention as the kidnapped Stark Industries intern from the press, after Pepper came out on stage to inform the people what was going on while also begging Beck to let Peter go. 

Tony had been rewarded with a picture of a shirtless Peter, laying unconscious with big red scars on his back the same night.

(They also needed a new glass table for the living room).

Right now, Rhodey and Bill are sitting in the car they just left. Bill had insisted on coming with them because he wanted to see his daughter before he went to prison, which Tony couldn't disagree on, Bill had only done this because he wanted to protect her after all. Sure, the way he handled it was definitely wrong, but at the end of the day it was never for the sake of hurting someone else, which at least means redemption is something that's possible for him. 

At least, that's what Peter thought. 

The kid liked to say that redemption exist in the reason of a crime and what the criminal is willing to do about his sin, and that the people with a good reason and will, always deserves a second chance. Tony remembered how he'd grinned and joked about Peter sounding like a 200 year old man when saying those words, but Peter had only shoved him mockingly before making a off-hand comment about having been told from his uncle the exact same words.

Peter never brought it up again. 

Tony snaps out of his thoughts, when he realizes they're getting closer to the alley they will take to get to the backdoor. They know there's a bunch of guards protecting it, but if the plan works, Clint should have already tasered them while he made his way to his spotting place. They walk in to the alley and draws their guns anyway, just in case. 

But luckily, Clint haven't made this plan go to waste, because when Tony and Nat arrives at the door, a bunch of unconscious bodies lays crumbled on the ground, all wearing the same armor they saw on the footage from the school. Tony's insides flares at the sight and he kicks one of them in the chest, he stares for a little while longer at the disgusting armor, before he clenches his knuckles once, and keeps going. 

Natasha is standing crouched next to the door when he catches up to her, appearing to be fiddling with a code-lock for a few seconds, before the sound of a small click is heard and Natasha grabs the handle and opens the it. 

They sneak in quietly, Tony still holds his gun leveled at the ground while Natasha has hers close the her face as it's pointing towards the ceiling. They can hear the sounds of heavy footsteps echo a few floors up, but otherwise the floor they're on seems to be clear.

They sneak forwards a bit more through an empty hallway until they end up in some kind of lobby, the windows are sealed with construction cardboard but the faint sunlight seeps through the cracks anyway, lighting up the room in a natural glow. 

They walk into it and looks around, until they find another corridor that seems to lead to the elevators. They're still walking as quietly as they can, even though the guards probably wouldn't hear them if they walked normally anyway. 

His heart is beating loudly in his chest as they sneak they're way to their destination, the sound of muffled voices can be heard from the upper floors, guards loudly laughing and shouting at each other. He rolls his eyes at pretty much everything around him, silently debating whether he should see if Wanda can put a curse on this place or something, but at the same time:

This place won't exist for much longer if he has something to say about it. 

He stretches his back when they've finally arrived at the elevators, and sees Natasha cock her head towards a door with the sign "Stairwell" on it. There isn't a second thought before they decide to take them instead. 

The spy opens the door slowly, giving Tony access to walk through it before they're both inside, and Natasha closes the door behind them. Tony looks up to see the stair case go in spirals all the way up to the top, the hole in the middle of the spiral being protected by an iron fence that he leans on to look up through it. 

Natasha eyes him once, before they starts climbing up the stairs, the sound of the guards getting closer and closer. 

They have two floors left, when a new sound appears high above them. 

"No, Please, I want my dad!" 

They stop dead in their tracks and locks their gazes at each other. The voice is the one of a little girl crying, and an uneasy feeling searches up his spine at how distressed the girl sounds like.

He's never liked the sound of kids crying, it makes him remember way too much about all the tears he used to wipe away from Peter's eyes, after nightmares and close calls on patrols, or the time the kid had a sensory overload when they had been watching a movie, and Peter's screams had pierced through Tony's ears as tears ran down the poor kid's cheeks. 

Yeah alright, he changed his mind, Wanda will have to put a curse on those goddamn sensory overloads instead. 

"Please I don't want to be here anymore!" The little girl cries, snapping them out of their thoughts in the process. 

Tony looks at Natasha, who also seems to decide that the well-being of a kid is way more important then their cover, before they both starts running up the stairs, their footsteps echoing in the stairwell. The sprint feels too long for his liking, and their steps aren't exactly silent anymore, but they run anyway, the little girl's cries growing louder and louder the closer they get. 

They finally get to the right floor after a while, and Natasha doesn't wait another second before Tony sees her kick the door open. 

It's almost comical how every guard on the whole floor turns their heads towards them the moment they bust in, before they're all scrambling for their riffles. They aim them quickly at Tony and Natasha, and he quickly puts his arms up in the air, Natasha following soon after.

The guards yells at them to answer who they are, but he isn't listening to them, instead his gaze lands on two guards at the back of the room, holding a little girl in both of her arms while she's trying to struggle away from them.

He bites his cheek and turns his gaze towards Nat, who also has her gaze on the girl, before she looks up at the guards, but Tony sees the things only a few people see when they look at Natasha, she nods once, subtle enough without any of the guards noticing. 

Tony sees her hand twitching a bit in the air, and when he glances up at it, she twitch it again. 

... _one..._

Tony glances at the girl the guards are dragging further away from them, then back at the other once, but he can see the girl struggling even in the corner of his eye. 

... _two..._

The girl is screaming, and at one point her gaze locks on Tony's, he tries to put as much of a reassuring look as possible, he doesn't know if she sees it, but he hopes she at least get they're here to help her. He squares himself a bit, waiting for the last twitch of Natasha's hand. 

_...Three._

Tony bolts to his right at the signal, Natasha running to her left at the same time while the guards scramble to try and shoot them. He sees Natasha knock down a guard before grabbing his riffle, aiming it at the others as she keeps running, Tony dodges a bullet at the same time before he tackles one of the guards and does the same thing as Nat. He grabs the riffle when he gets the guy pinned to the ground, before he leaps up from his spot and aims his weapon at the guards. 

He runs towards them with riffle in hand and manages to grab one of the guards' and throws their own riffle away from them, before he grabs the guy's arm and hauls him around in a circle, he uses all of the strength he has to swing him around as the guy desperately tries to get away from his hold, yelling a little before Tony lets go of his grip and the guard goes flying towards his companion, making him topple over the other as they fall to the ground. 

He pants a little before he looks around and sees the girl getting dragged away, and he glances at Nat quickly, who has knocked down way more guards than him, with only two guys left to take care of. 

He's about to run and help her, but she sees the girl too, and she quickly waves him off, yelling: "Go! I got these guys! Stop the other once and I'll come and help you soon!" At the same moment she jumps on the only guy who still has a riffle left and locks her thighs around his head, before using her whole body to spin around and slams him against the ground. Tony doesn't need much more proof that she'll be fine, before he starts running towards the girl. 

The guards drags her into another hallway, in which Tony quickly follows, he can see the guards rounding a corner before they spot him, and quickly yells orders at each other before they starts to go faster. He pants heavily as he runs, cursing his body for aging so fast, but desperately pushes down the feeling of his burning muscles and keeps going. 

He sees a door at the end of the hallway where the guards are dragging the girl towards, and he makes a split decision, before he glances down at the wristwatch he grabbed seconds before they left the tower. There's a small container filled with Nanobots in it, enough to create a gauntlet of, but the charging's broken and he only have a few blows left before the thing dies, plus he wants to save the most of them to Beck.

 _One blow won't matter,_ He thinks, before he makes up his mind and presses a button that will prepare it. The gauntlet isn't visible yet, but the button he just pushed will make gauntlet ready to use whenever. He keeps the gantlet invisible for the time as he catches up on the guards, and instead uses his riffle for protection.

He knows he can't overpower them, though. Shooting one guy will only leave a room for the other to shoot him instead, plus they're focus is entirely on him now, not like the other guards before who he could just beat by confusing them. He needs Natasha here, and he knows she'll come in a moment, but he still hates feeling so powerless.

One of the guys turns around while the other one is fiddling with a key in the door when they notice him. Tony sees the guy aim his riffle at him, while the one with the key is holding the girl in a strong grip as he keeps trying to get the door to open. He stops dead in his tracks as the riffle is pointing towards him. 

"Stop!" The guy shouts, "Stop right there!" And he highers the weapon so it's aiming at his head. Tony doesn't give in, and instead stands with his own riffle aiming back at the guy. "Whatever you want, we won't give to you," the guy says, "The little girl belongs to Beck."

Tony narrows his eyes and casts a glance at the guy still trying to open the door. "Leave the door alone," He orders, "And let the girl go." 

The guy chuckles. "We're not letting anyone go. Especially not this little brat here." The guy grabs the girl's shoulder and shakes her roughly, making a whimper escape the girl, and Tony sees red. 

"What are you even gaining from this?" He asks, "Beck's a lunatic who hurts people for fun and you're currently helping him," He stares at the guards, "So trust me, whatever price you get from doing this won't be worth it!" 

The guards exchange a look with each other, before the riffle guy scoffs. "You don't know anything about what Beck will give us," He says, "We and our families will be in danger if we disobey him, so I will gladly do anything in my power to help the guy."

"We're trying to survive here, Stark" The key guy cuts in, "but I'm not surprised a billionaire like you doesn't get that."

Tony drags in a breath as he ignores the comment. "Listen, whatever Beck has blackmailed you with, we can help you. I got the whole police force with me and we'll make sure to keep you and your families safe, if you just give me the girl." He pleads, looking at the girl who's cheeks are tear stained and eyes full with fear. 

The riffle guy huffs. "No one can stop Beck!" He yells a bit flustered, "he's _insane_ , but he's insane with dedication and will do anything to get what he wants," Tony sees the guy's eyes narrow, "You can't fight him, Stark, he's got contacts everywhere on the planet, and I'm just doing my best to stay away from them." 

Tony bites his lip. "We can still help-" 

"No!" The key guy cries, "No one can help us! Beck has us in his hold and he'll kill everyone we love if we don't do exactly as he says!" The guy has stopped fiddling with the key and is instead putting himself between the girl and Tony, seeming to realize opening the door is a lost cause.

At that commando, the riffle guy aims his weapon a bit more focused on Tony, he realizes they're about to make an escape, and Tony has to keep himself from looking like he knows. He just needs to stall them until Nat comes. 

He holds up his hands in surrender, his ears straining to hear for Natasha's footsteps as he gives them a look. "I can still promise the both of you," He starts, "Beck won't come anywhere near you, alright? You have my word for it." He promises. 

The riffle guy shakes his head, "You can't help us, Beck will get what he wants." He pauses, looks at his companion, and a string of sadness passes through them, Tony can see it. "He always does." The guy says a bit more melancholy.

Tony's about to say something else, when the sound he'd been listening for suddenly cuts him off, and his lips quirks up at it. 

Natasha has always been light on her feet, so when he hears the small padding of quick footsteps echo behind him, he knows it's her. She's probably a few hallways behind them, but the guards hasn't heard her yet, and are instead continuing to try to get him to understand, even though Tony isn't exactly listening. 

"-We protect what we love, Stark, and if you want to help us you should let us go!" The key guy says. Tony snaps back when he hears it. 

An idea pops into his head, and he forces away the smirk threatening to invade his lips, before he slowly moves the riffle he'd been holding in the air, and puts it down on the ground in surrender. 

"Alright, I'll let you go," He says carefully, "Just promise me you'll deliver her to Beck and then inform us where he is." The guards goes quiet as the stare at him, "If you do that, Beck won't know you betrayed him, and I can get to his place and save the girl." He ignores the panic look in the girls face as she hears what he says. 

The men blinks at him once, then at each other, then back at him again. 

The riffle guy narrows his eyes after a while. "You're lying." 

Tony raises an eyebrow. "I just put my riffle on the ground, the last thing I have to protect myself, if you run now I won't be able to stop you. "He starts, "There is no police force in the area, if there was you'd be hearing the sirens by now, plus there would probably be a whole group of them arresting you right now if they were here," He shrugs, "But then again, threat can hurt anyone, and if what you're saying is true there wouldn't be a reason to lock you in." He almost wants to laugh at their dumbfounded faces. 

The key guy glares at him. "There is no reason to trust you." 

He shrugs again. "Maybe not, but what other options do you have other than kill The Iron Man?" He asks, "But keep in mind, doing so will lead you to a lifetime of prison." 

The men grumbles under their breaths to each other, debating their options. Natasha is getting closer, and Tony hopes these guys will make up their minds before she arrives, otherwise this whole plan will go to waste. 

He catches his eyes on the girl again, who looks beyond terrified as she stands with her arm squeezed roughly by the key guy, she looks up at him when she sees him, and a pleading look marries her face while she makes one last attempt at struggling out of the guys hold, her brown, curly locks hitting her face as she does so.

The girl has long, curly brown hair and a pink dress with a white band around her waist, and he can see the outlines of a big bow on her back, her skin a dark color like Bill. The girl's eyes are almost black with how dark the brown is, and she can't be older than ten.

She looks surprisingly clean, but that just makes bile rise up in his throat that the fact that Beck probably picked out the clothes for her and everything, he'd seen pictures of her before, in which she always wore denim jackets and black pants, nothing like how she looks now, like Beck intentionally made her look like a cute little sugar princess or something. 

He can feel the rage threaten to overwhelm.

But it cuts off, when the guys finally seems to have made up their minds, and they nod at him. 

"Alright," The key guy says, "We'll get her to Beck and then we'll tell you where he hides," Tony nods back, "But first you have to get the riffle away." He raises his eyebrow at them, but obeys, and kicks the weapon away from him. 

They're still aiming their riffles at him, but slowly starts walking past him, keeping an eye on him the entire time before they're path is clear, and to Tony's glee, they start running. He doesn't wait another second before he too starts running towards them, just in time when Natasha arrives from the corner and cuts them off in their path.

Natasha only needs a second to process the situation, before she sees the two guards running towards her and she punches the riffle guy right in the face, both of the men screaming as the key guy desperately stops in his tracks. 

But the riffle guy is already on the ground, unconscious, and the key guy is surrounded. 

The man whips his head around only to see Tony running towards him, this time with his gauntlet aimed at him. The key guy quickly turns around and aims his weapon at him, while putting the girl behind him with a strong grip on her arm.

"You-you lied to us!" The key guy screams. 

He raises an eyebrow at him and scoffs. "You really think we would let a child continue to get traumatized by you idiots?" He sees Natasha smirk when the man doesn't answer, "Now let go of the girl and we can end this peacefully." he orders. 

But the key guy shakes his head. "No! I already told you, Stark, we're doomed if we don't complete this!" He yells.

Tony narrows his eyes. "And I already told _you,_ my men will take care of everything, now let go of the girl." He says sternly. 

The key guy backs a little and grabs the girl harder, all while staring at Tony. "No. Never." 

Tony glares back, "Alright then." He looks down at the gauntlet, and lowers the force of it, below deadly, before he aims at the guy's chest and fires. 

It all happened fast, and Tony sees the guy trying to get away, before the thrust hits him in the chest, making him topple over as his grip loosens on the girl's arm, all while the girl quickly gets away from getting smashed by him. 

He watches the two guards laying unconscious on the floor, and he would lie if he says the scene doesn't bring a slight satisfaction to him, he can't wait to see Beck like that, although he would probably prefer him dead in that situation. 

A sniffling sound breaks him through his thoughts, and he looks around to see the girl standing a bit further away from the scene, arms around her stomach as tears are pouring out of her eyes. Tony looks up at Natasha, who's texting someone (probably Steve) about the situation, before she feels the weight of his gaze and looks up. 

He clears his throat, and cocks his head towards the girl before he says, "Nat, take those two to the cops, I'll be there in a minute." Natasha nods, before she handcuffs both of the guards in the same cuff and starts dragging them out. 

Tony sighs as he watches her go, looking around for a moment before he turns around to greet the girl, only to find her seconds away from a breakdown. 

Tony feels a pang of sadness hit his chest at the sight of her, and he quickly crouches down so he can look her in the eye. He smiles lightly, which at least makes the girl glance up a bit between her sniffles. 

He clears his throat. "Hey there," He greets. The girl bits back a sob before she looks down at ground again, mumbling something under her breath. he bites the inside of his cheek. "My name is Tony Stark," He ducks his head a little, "You know him? Iron Man? Protector of New York? I promise Iron Man would never hurt a kid, so you're safe with me." The girl still doesn't look up, but her breathing his calming down just a little. 

"Tell me," He starts, "is your father's name 'Bill Harper'?" He asks. The girl pauses a little, before she nods, Tony smiles even though she's not looking at him. "That's good, because your father is waiting for you right now." 

That get's the girl's attention, she looks up at him with wide eyes, and he ignores the pit in his stomach at how similar they are to Peter's.

"Dad?" She whispers. 

Tony smiles. "Yep. He's outside right now and can't wait to hug you." The girl's eyes sparks with happiness, "So what do you say? Should we go and see him?" He asks lightly. 

The girl's eyes widen, and a bubbly laugh escapes her as she shouts, "yes, yes, yes!" and before Tony knows it, he's tackled by small arms encircling his back, and it takes a second to realize she's hugging him. Tony laughs a little as he returns the hug, his eyes watering when he hears her whisper, 'Thank you!' over and over. 

The girl breaks the hug and looks at him, before he motions for them to start walking. He gets up from where he's been crouching to hug her, and stretches his back when the feeling of a little hand touches his own, the girl has taken his hand for comfort, and Tony won't deny any contact to a no doubt traumatized child, so he lets her. 

They start walking, the girl walking closer and closer to him as she worryingly looks around the corridor, like a monster is about to jump out at any second. He squeezes her hand once in reassurance, something he was taught by all the times he's been calming down a distressed Peter from a nightmare or surgery, apparently children gets calm by knowing others are aware of their distress, a way to tell them they aren't alone, he hopes that's the case with this girl too. 

They walk in silence, before he decides to spark up a conversation in hope of getting her mind on other things. "So," He starts, "May I ask what your name is?" 

The girl grows quiet for a moment. "My dad said I shouldn't give any information about myself to strangers." She says at last. 

His lips quirks up a bit at the most usual answer for kids (which, don't get him wrong, is a good answer, but he really wants to address her by something else other then 'The girl')

"That's a really good advice, you can never trust strangers," He says, "But I promise you I won't hurt you, that would not be a nice move from Iron-Man, so if you want to you can tell me your name, but I'm not forcing you." He hopes the words are calming enough. 

The girl bites her lip and goes quiet, before she says. "Rachel. My name is Rachel."

Tony smiles and squeezes her hand. "Nice to meet you Rachel," He looks down at her, and waits before she catches his eyes, "I'm Tony Stark."

Rachel giggles and looks up at him. "Don't you mean: Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, philanthropist?" Tony gapes at her comically in response, which makes her giggle again.

He smiles. "Well, it looks like I got a fan." He nudges her as she keeps giggling. 

Rachel grins. "Yeah! My dad loves what you did in The Battle In New York." Tony smiles, although a bit more forced at the end of her words, desperately pushing away any unwelcome memories. "You also saved my mom that day." She suddenly says, a bit more quietly though. 

Tony blinks. "I did?" He did not expect that. 

Rachel smiles softly. "Yeah," She starts, "Mom was about to get attacked by a Chitauri, but you blasted it before it killed her." A warm light sparks in Rachel's eyes, "Captain America saved her too, and apparently she'd met him before when he'd visited the coffee shop she worked at, mom always supported you guys after people started thinking you were bad, so I decided I would support you too." She says at last, and Tony grows quiet. 

He remembers Steve talking about a woman he saved, who held multiple of campaigns that would keep the Avengers trustworthy. Her name was Beth Harper, a barista in a coffee shop that Steve had visited before the invasion, and who he didn't shut up about for a long time. Tony can't believe he's probably standing next to the woman's daughter, the same woman who would hold demonstrations and speeches just so that the Avengers would still be able to protect the earth.

He hopes this will avenge her in some way. 

"Well," He starts, "I hope I do Beth good one last time, saving you." He doesn't look at Rachel's expression, but he can feel the glee radiating off of her, which makes a small smile marry his face. 

Yeah, Peter did make him one big softy, huh. 

The walk out of the building is long, but Rachel seems happy being able to talk to one of her heroes, so Tony won't complain. The moment they're outside however, Rachel goes completely quiet while she looks out at the city, eyes wide before she turns her head towards Tony for reassurance. He smiles at her encouragingly and squeezes her hand, before he looks up to see Bill stand a few feet ahead of them next to one of the police cars that has parked in front of the building. 

Bill has his hand over his mouth, tears in his eyes as he stares at his daughter. Tony nudges Rachel to make her look up, and the earlier worry completely disappears when her eyes catches her father. 

"Dad!" She yells, before she lets go of Tony's hand and starts sprinting towards her father. Tony watches as Bill crouches down, arms out as Rachel jumps into them. Bill laughs and spins them around, yelling his daughter's name over and over, he tackles her with kisses all over her face, which makes Rachel laugh with glee. 

Tony watches it all with a smile on his face, but a pang of sadness hits his chest when he realized they never found Peter, and he can't help but lose the energy of trying to stay happy, Peter's still gone. 

The realization hits him like a wave. 

_Fuck, Peter's still gone, Beck still has him, He's wasted so much time on this and they didn't even find him._

He sways a bit on the spot, feeling the hopelessness well up inside him, he digs his nails into his hands while he wishes he had a pillow to scream in right now. 

"Tones?" A voice suddenly says. 

Tony looks to his right to see Rhodey stand there, concern written on his face. 

"Did you find Peter?" The words sounds muffled to his ears, and he can feel his breathe catch up. 

He shakes his head, blood rushing through his ears when his gaze lands on Rachel and Bill, both still hugging. He needs answers, Rachel was there for 2 months, she must have seen Peter or at least heard of him. 

He starts walking without realizing it, ignoring Rhodey's confused words behind him as he almost stumbles his way to the father and daughter. Bill sees him and smiles, his mouth moving rapidly as Tony can almost make out the sound of, "Thank you!" And,"God bless you!" Even though Tony deserves none of that, because Peter's still _gone._

He tries to center himself in the world, and he forces a smile as he looks at Rachel, who's eyes are full of happiness and glee, just like Peter's used to be. 

"H-hey," He greets a bit lamely, "I just wanted to ask a few questions," He looks at Bill, "if that's okay?" Bill seems conflicted, and looks at his daughter for confirmation, but fortunately Rachel nods.

Tony smiles. "Good," He says, "And if you don't want to answer, that's perfectly fine." 

Rachel nods again. "Okay."

Tony swallows. "Rachel, I'm gonna need you to think really hard now, okay?" Rachel looks at him, "When you were in that place, did you ever see a teenage boy anywhere?" 

The girl goes quiet, biting her lip as she thinks. Bill is holding her tightly, apparently she's light enough to be carried, which makes the unwelcome memories of Peter in the videos, how skinny and weak the kid had looked. If Rachel's also malnourished, Tony's sure he might just crumble. 

Rachel shakes her head suddenly, snapping him out of his thoughts. "No, I don't think so," She says sadly and looks down, "Sorry."

Tony shakes his head. "No, no, no, it's okay, I just wanted to check," Bill smiles sadly at him, "but just to be sure, did someone ever mention a person named Peter Parker?" 

Rachel's grows quiet again, before her head snaps up, much to Tony's delight. "Oh yeah!" She exclaims, "I remember them saying that name!" 

Tony can feel the hope grow in his chest. "Yeah? Do you remember anything specifically about him?" 

Rachel shakes her head. "No, I didn't pay much attention," She hunches in on herself a little, "Was that wrong?" 

Bill's quick to assure her. "Oh, no, honey, you were so brave," He hugs her closer, "You did everything just right even under those horrible conditions."

Tony nods. "Yeah, kid, you're a real trouper." He ignores the pit growing in his stomach, and looks around a little. The urge to just run away from the whole place suddenly hitting him like a rock, because he will not have another breakdown in public, since someone managed to catch a picture of his last one, he doesn't need more signs that he's weak, that he's a failure, that he can't even protect the few good things in his life, that he can't-

"Well, that's all I wanted to ask," He looks back at Rachel, forcing himself to smile, "You're a really strong kid, Rachel, Iron-Man's proud of you." 

Rachel grins, before she turns to her father and motions for him to put her down. Bill smiles in understanding as he slowly obeys, when Rachel looks up at Tony. She doesn't take another second before she skits forward and wraps her arms around his chest, much to his own confusion, but when he feels a small hand grab at his sleeve he unconsciously crouches down, before Rachel slings her tiny arms around his neck. 

"My mom was right," She mumbles into his neck, "You're always there to catch people." Tony stares over her shoulder, feeling his eyes water up as he hugs her back. 

"I'm sorry I couldn't save her." He mumbles back. 

Rachel shakes her head. "You saved her enough, she always said danger drew to her anyway."

Tony smiles and closes his eyes. "I bet she's proud of you." 

"I bet she's proud of you too." Rachel says, the smile clear in her voice. 

Tony squeezes one more time before he lets go and stands up, stretching his muscles a bit while Bill is watching with the biggest smile on his face, Tony just sees him turn his gaze to the police cars before he looks back at Rachel. 

Tony bends down to pat Rachel's head as he says, "Good luck out there, Rachel. I'm sure you'll be the best of us when you grow up." He winks, which makes Rachel giggle. 

He looks up at Bill, who's smile has dropped a bit, and he's rubbing anxiously at his wrist while his eyes darts to the police cars a few feet away from them, looking worried for every minute that passes on. 

Tony straightens his shoulders when he realizes what Bill's nervous about; they've found Rachel, and Bill has been able to see her now, 

Which means Bill will have to go to prison for Aiding and Abetting very soon. 

Tony walks forward to Bill and motions for him to follow, the father's still watching the cops with a worried gaze but follows him nonetheless, until they're a bit further away from Rachel who's being handled by a close friend of Bill. 

They stop when they're far away enough for no one to hear them, and that's when Bill starts talking, "Mr Stark I- Look I know what I did was illegal and I get it if you want me behind bars cus' of Peter, but I- If you could- I just- I just want a few days with her, and then you can arrest me but I just want some more time with my little girl before-" 

"I'm gonna stop you right there," Tony interrupts, making Bill shut up. He sighs. "Look, I know you just wanted to protect her, I get that, and if I'm completely honest, I don't think I would have acted much different from what you did." He admits. 

Bill looks down at the ground and sighs. "But?" He asks defeated. 

Tony tilts his head to the side, smirking a bit. "Does there always have to be a 'but' in every situation?"

Bill pauses in confusion, before the realization dawns on him and he snaps his head up, eyes wide as he stares disbelievingly at Tony. "I- You mean-" 

Tony smile softens. "Bill, I'm not saying the way you handled it was by any means a good way but..." He looks down at the ground and shrugs, "to be honest, if Peter found out I had arrested a guy who's crime had only been done because he wanted to save his daughter, I wouldn't hear the end of it," He looks back up at Bill who's eyes has watered with tears, "I won't send you to prison, Rachel needs her father more than me needing someone to blame my anger on, anyway." 

Bill stares at him, mouth half open. "I- I- Thank you," He breathes, "Oh my god I can't believe..." he trails of, Before he breathes out another, "Thank you."

"No problem," He says, before his voice grows serious, "Although I am gonna need to put you under house arrest for a few months," He explains, "Which means you'll only be able to leave the house for two days a week to get groceries and other important stuff, I know it's not exactly freedom but..." He scratches his neck, "It'll probably be the closest I can get you away from prison." 

Bill just nods eagerly through his whole speech. "Yes, yes of course, as long as I'm with my daughter I'm fine." 

Tony smiles, before he slowly puts a hand on Bill's shoulder. "Good, I trust you." He says, looking Bill in the eyes when a smirk forms on his lips, and he cocks his head towards where Rachel is. "Now go be with your daughter." 

Bill nods frantically. "I will. Th-thank you, thank you so much I-"

"I know." Tony says, and he _does._

Bill smiles, before he says goodbye, and Tony watches the father sprint happily to his daughter, he smiles as Bill picks Rachel up and swings her around, the little girl's laughter echoing in his ears. 

Tony feels his smile fade seconds later though, and he's way too aware of the pit in his stomach growing all over again. It always disappears when his mind is occupied with something else, but it never leaves, even though he's desperately tried to avoid it.

But the feeling he had after he'd fallen asleep in Peter's bed and completely forgotten that the kid was gone, only to wake up and have reality crash in on him almost made him crumble right then and there, hating how lonely everything feels when Peter isn't around. 

He dreams about his kid a lot, not nightmares, but instead just memories of him, happy memories that he wants to pluck out of his brain and hold them tight to his core, cursing anyone who tries to take them away from him. 

He dreams about the happy times, like when the whole team had booked a cabin in the north to go on a well deserved vacation, and Tony had gotten the wildest idea to wake Peter up in the middle of the night and drag him out to go fishing. The kid had grumbled the whole way there, asking him:

_"What- what the hell, Tony! Can't we do this in the morning?"_

_"Nope, I am fulfilling my role as a male mentor and taking you fishing is the first thing on that list."_

_"Can't we just do something else that doesn't involve the possibility of drowning?"_

_"Do you want me to put 'swimming lessons' on it too?"_

_"I'm getting this close to put 'find a new mentor' on mine."_

_"Rude."_

(Peter did indeed need swimming lessons)

He remembers how excited Peter had been the whole time they spent there, how the happiness the kid had radiated off of himself painted the walls of the house, how everyone's laughter became louder and souls became younger.

He remembers their chaotic monopoly nights they had at the cabin, he remembers looking over the whole mess of laughter and bickering and realizing how much the team had healed after the whole Siberia showdown. How the murderer of his parents was just sitting a few feet away from him and he didn't even mind, or how Peter had been sitting between him and Steve and his instinct didn't go off like an overprotective mother-hen, the way it had done in the beginning whenever Steve had gotten too close to the kid.

Everything had been perfect, the team had become a family again, but of course the universe just couldn't let him keep that. 

Tony sighs where he stands, he puts his head in his hands as he drags in a breath, when his eyes catch the gauntlet still on his hand. He clenches the fist who's wearing it, wishing Beck was here just so he could punch the shit out of him until he pleads for mercy, and Tony will finally be able to get that asshole's face of the earth. 

Tony looks out over the place, policemen walks frantically in and out of the building while gathering up guards, putting one after one into the cars to interrogate them later at the station, he sees Natasha narrowing a stern look at everything, keeping everything in check, just like she always does. 

Peter wasn't here, Peter's not here, they finally had a lead and the kid's still gone. Tony has never wanted to scream so badly as he does in this moment, hating how much they put on this and still came out empty handed, Peter's not here, he never even was. 

Tony drags in a breath, looking down at his gauntlet again. It's been too long, he has no idea if Peter's still alive, no idea if Peter's breathing, and if he is Tony still doesn't know _where_ he is, if he's hurt, if he's in pain, or how much time there's left until he crumbles. 

Or if he already has. 

Tony shakes his head again, refusing to believe that, even though he knows it's true. The kid might be strong but torture can make any man lose it, Tony himself did. 

He shakes his head and looks around, hoping and praying that it won't be long until Peter will be in his arms again, and that when he is, Peter will be alright,

he has to. 

"Just hang on for a little while longer, Pete." Tony says into the thin air as he feels tears welling up in his eyes. 

_He has to._

"Just a little while longer." 

* * *

The first thing Peter registers when he wakes up, is the buzzing sound coming from somewhere above him, it's not loud but not quiet either, to be honest he's not sure if he's suppose to hear it in the first place, but he guesses being part spider probably plays a role in it. 

The next thing he registers is the strong light still visible even with his eyes closed, it only takes a second for Peter to realize the sound is obviously from the lamp no doubt hanging above him. 

This is weird though, since when has the lights in his room ever been this bright? Tony himself had designed them to always keep a low brightness because of Peter's heightened senses, knowing Peter sometimes even sees better in the dark than in broad day light, which just makes his confusion grow even more. 

Peter frowns a little, shifting around in his bed before he tries to make a move to sit up. He pushes himself up with his left arm first, the side of his back resting on his elbow, but when he tries to move his right one... 

He can't. 

He can't feel it, he can't move it....

Peter frowns deeper, he can feel the muscles in his shoulder work but anything below that, doesn't, the slightest of pain spikes up his torso when he flexes his muscles harder, making him grunt as he falls against his bed. He shifts a little to the side, trying to make his body touch his arm, but he can't feel anything, it's not until he's completely on his left side and he still can't feel an arm underneath him, that the confusion grows even more, and with one last move, he completely falls over until he lands on his stomach. 

Except...

He can't feel his arm being there at all.

Panic searches through his veins when the realization clicks in, and he wastes no time flipping onto his back again, before he snaps his eyes open. 

And just like that, the memories comes flooding in.

he remembers the guards barging into his school, he remembers Beck whispering into his ear, telling him that he knows about Spider-Man, about everything. He remembers the constant pain he's felt for the last three weeks, the hopelessness that's been growing inside him the more days that passes, he remembers begging for an end, begging for mercy even if it means never waking up again. 

He remembers Beck laughing at him in response. 

But then, a new memory invades his mind, and he freezes in his seat. 

He remembers how close he was to escape, the feeling of something like relief growing in his body, he remembers thinking he finally made it, and then have it completely crushed in front of him when he realized where he is. He remembers the high pitched noise going of on his ear, he remembers his muscles stiffening, Beck's murderous face looming over him, Beck dragging him to where he is now by his arm-

_His arm?_

_His fucking arm!_

Peter's breath hitch, his heart beating loudly in chest when remembers what Beck did next. No... No he can't possibly have- 

Peter doesn't want to look, if he doesn't he can still pretend everything's fine, but the memory of when he woke up, wondering why he can't move or feel it... 

He swallows, trying one more time to move it, but he can't. His blood runs cold, his breaths becoming heavier as he slowly turns his head to look at his arm. 

Bile rises up in his throat at the sight he's greeted with. 

There's blood all over the right side of his bed and floor, half of it on him, but it's nothing compared to what he has his gaze focused on. 

His arm, the whole fucking arm is gone to the base of his shoulder, everything is wrapped in bandages that stretches around his chest and back while being fastened by a knot at the outside of his shoulder, the same shoulder that's supposed to be connected with _a fucking arm._

Peter stares at the empty space, wiggling his shoulder as if that will somehow get his arm back. He brings up a shaky hand to hover over his mouth, tears welling up in his eyes as his mind can barely process what he's seeing. 

_His arm is gone, his arm is gone, his fucking arm is gone!_

It's the only thing that's running through his mind. 

_Gonegonegonegonegonegonegone!_

He snaps his gaze away, dragging in a ragged breath as he squeezes his eyes shut, the buzzing sound of those goddamn lamps getting louder and louder in his ears as his shoulder spasms. 

he's shaking, fear and panic being the only emotions he can process for the moment as he quickly grabs a pillow behind his back and shoves his head into it. He screams, loud, the sound muffled by the pillow as he sobs, he keeps trying to move his right arm but it's like his brain gets shortcut, not able to understand what he wants to do, it's annoying and scary and Peter just wants all of this to be over, he's not even hoping for Tony anymore, he just needs to get out. 

Another sob wrecks through him and his hand squeezes the pillow tight, he gasps, and bangs his legs up and down on the bed when his breaths becomes heavier and heavier. It's getting harder to breathe, his mind still stuck in an never ending loop of reminding him that _he just lost his fucking arm!_

Peter lets go of the pillow before he slams his left palm against his stomach, his air canals getting tighter and head getting foggier. He needs to breath, not breathing means pain and he can't stand more of it, he wants to go home, he doesn't want to be here anymore, _he wants to go home._

He's stumbling out of the bed before he realizes it. 

Peter doesn't know what he's doing, his body feels numb and achy but he keeps going, his left hand holding on to his right shoulder like he wants to protect it. He halts in his walk, stumbling around and bumping into things as he goes, he has no idea where Beck is, but his mind isn't worrying about that, he just needs to get out of here, he doesn't want to be here, he doesn't want to be here, he doesn't want-

Another sob wrecks through him when he finally makes it to the doors of the room, and he pushes them open before he's stumbling out. He's greeted with the same hallway he saw when Beck dragged him here, no lights are on, the only light source being the moon shining through the windows, but he can see just fine, so he continues stumbling forward. 

He holds himself up by leaning with his left hand on the wall, halting his way through the corridor as his thoughts jumbles around in his brain, his mind is screaming at him to get away again, just like it did when he'd tried running away from Beck, but he has no idea what will happen if Beck catches him another time escaping, and with that a horrifying thought strikes his mind:

_This is where I'll die._

Peter shakes his head, _No, he's not going to die here, he will not give Beck that satisfaction._

He's been waiting for death, but as he thinks about it, if he dies in the hands of Beck he'll never forgive himself, the man took everything from him, Beck doesn't deserve to be the one ending his life, even if it means he has to wait another month for Tony to get him. 

He shivers at the thought, but he doesn't change his mind. 

Peter's almost on his way back to the medbay again, when something catches the corner of his eye, and he snaps his gaze towards it. 

Peter blinks at the sight, his mind barely processing what he's seeing, but that doesn't make it any less real. 

On the wall opposite from him, a bit further own the hall, stands three big objects, and with a snap Peter sees what they are. 

Phone-booths. 

actual, real, phone-booths. 

Peter gapes, it feels to good to be true, but the phone-booths still stands there, probably meant for prisoners to call their loved once from time to time. His mind screams at him to get to them, but another part screams at him to leave them alone and wait for Tony, because if Beck finds him at one of them he doesn't know what might happen. 

He looks back at the doors to the medbay, waiting for him, but the phones are right in front of him, he might actually be able to call Tony, he might actually be able to hear his voice again.

Peter stumbles towards the phones without realizing it. 

His heart is beating in his chest, he's sweating and panting once he's finally in front of the phone booths. Peter yanks the phone out its stand, staring at it for a second as his hand trembles. He's breathes loudly, swallowing as the landline lays heavy in his palm, before he slowly lifts it towards his ear,

And he feels like the universe is just laughing at him right now. 

There's no tone in the phone, no sign that it's working, Peter tries to press some of the buttons on the stand but nothing's working, he can feel the pit in his stomach growing, he can barley hear anything except the blood rushing through his ears. 

"No..." He breathes, his voice strained, "No, please no, come on!" A sob wrecks through him, he tries to push harder on the buttons but it doesn't work, he starts slamming uselessly on the stand, punching his fist into it once as he bites back a scream and squeezes his eyes shut. 

"Please..." He whispers, leaning forward to rest his head against the wall of the stand. He sniffles and opens his eyes, looking down at the offending buttons and the stupid phone that doesn't even work. His gaze catches something in the corner of his eye, and he turns his head just slightly, only to see a small buckle in the hard material from where his fist punched it. 

He frowns when he sees how big the buckle is, he's almost surprised he had that much energy to make it so big, since the only food he'd gotten had been that weird soup Beck gave him earlier,

he pushes the memory away immediately when his stomach starts to grumble. 

Peter's eyes widen when an Idea suddenly strikes his head, he used to rewire old computers before he became Spider-Man, something both his teachers and Tony was incredibly impressed by when he showed it to them. There's electricity in this building, which means the problem must be inside the phone,

so maybe he can rewire it. 

Peter heaves out a breath, not letting the hope get to him but rises up from his place nonetheless, and starts hauling his way out of he booth and around it.

He crashes down on his knees when he sees the sealed trapdoor on the side of the booth, screws rusted from years of disuse, he drags in a breath while flexing his hand once, before he clenches it into a fist and drags his arm back. 

There's a loud clanking sound echoing through the building when his fist punches through the hard material, and Peter freezes, holding his breath as he tries to listen to any kind of sound that Beck is anywhere near. 

A few seconds goes by with Peter getting ready to bolt at any moment, but when nothing comes, he exhales loudly, before he grabs the broken trapdoor and yanks it out of its place. 

Peter feels the slightest of happiness well up inside him when he sees all the different wires and resistors snaking around each other, he doesn't need much time before he sees what the problem is, and relief immediately fills his body. 

It's a hard process, reconnecting the wires and all the other stuff he needs to do, since he literally only has one hand to do the job. Peter has to bite back at least five frustrating groans when he can't even hold the cables properly, and he is no doubt one step away from breaking down crying, but he keeps going, the thought of finally being able to hear Tony again is enough to keep him away from crumbling. 

It takes another few agonizing minutes to rewire the system, but he does it, and then with a small _click_ the phone booth starts running again, and Peter almost laughs out loud with delight. 

He jumps up quickly from his spot, having no time processing the slight pain in his back before he's throwing himself against the booth and holds himself up it. He pushes himself until his leaning on one of the walls that's fastened to the booth, before he takes a deep breath as he stares at the phone. He slowly lifts his hand towards it, shakily picking up the phone and puts it against his ear, and a breathless laugh escapes him when he hears the tone which means it _works, it fucking works!_

He puts the phone between his right shoulder and chin, as he uses his hand to push in the buttons on the dial pad, he still remembers Tony's number, something Tony wanted him to rehears in case he ever finds himself without his phone, Peter has never been more happy for Tony's paranoia as he is now. 

He holds his breath as he punches in the last digit, heart beating in his chest when the ringing tone goes of in his ears. He's shaking all over, his palm sweating while his broken shoulder twitches in discomfort.

_Riiiing.... Riiiiing....Riiiiiing...._

The tone keeps ringing, and Peter feels dread searching up his body the longer the ringing goes on, _please answer, please answer, please answer..._

He stands there, the tone ringing and ringing in his ear,

but no one's picking up.

Peter squeezes his eyes shut, a sob wrecks through him and he's so fucking tired of all this bullshit, _why can't the universe just give him something? Why won't it just leave him alone?_

Peter waits a few more minutes, dragging in breaths while swallowing sobs as he leans forward to rest his head against the wall in front of him. He feels the world chatter around him when he realizes Tony isn't answering, Tony isn't answering and this might just be it. He doesn't know if he'll ever get this kind of chance again, if he'll ever be able to reach anyone he loves again, soon Beck will come down here and Peter will have to go back to the pain, back to the hopelessness and numbness he's felt for this past three fucking weeks. 

Peter sobs again, and this time he can't even push it down, and it wrecks heavily through his body, leaving him light headed for a moment. he shakes his head as tears runs down his cheeks, before he's slowly starting to put the phone away,

but then...

"Hello?"

Peter pauses with the phone in mid air when he hears the voice, and he freezes slightly. The voice sounds rough, like it just woke up, and Peter can barely believe his ears when he realizes who the voice is. 

_Tony._

"Hello?" The voice, _Tony_ says again, and Peter exhales once, before he grabs the phone tighter and brings it up to his ear in a haste. 

he tries to say something, but his vocals won't work and he's left standing there breathing heavily. 

"Who's there?" Tony asks sternly, and a sob wrecks through him when he hears the man, loud enough for Tony to hear it. 

"Who am I talking to? Who is this? I'm gonna hang up if you don't tell me who I'm-" 

" _Tony_ ," Peter finally sobs, and Tony goes quiet. 

Seconds pasts with silence, the only thing reassuring Peter Tony hasn't hung up being the heavy breaths the man is taking on the other side of the phone. 

"Peter?" Tony finally breathes, voice breaking at the end. "Peter? Peter, baby, is that you?" 

Peter sobs again, nodding his head even though Tony can't see him. " _Yes,_ yes Tony it's- it's me."

Tony's breath hitch. "Oh my- oh my god." Peter's eyes gets blurry with tears. " _Peter._ " 

" _Tony._ "

"Petey, baby, please you need to tell me- What's- What's going on? Where are you? Are you hurt? Please Petey I-" Tony sobs. "Just- are you hurt, Peter?" 

Peter pauses, before he whines pathetically, emotions welling up on his when he realizes he's _actually taking to Tony. Tony is talking to him._

"Okay, okay. You don't- You don't have to answer that." Tony inhales heavily. "What's- What's happening? How are you- You're talking to me and-" Tony pauses. "No, you know what don't answer that, Peter are you just- are you okay?" 

Peter thinks of his arm for a moment, he thinks he might never be okay again, but all that comes out is a broken: "It's gone, Tony, it's- it's gone-" 

"What's gone?" Tony cuts him off. "Peter, what's gone?" Peter drags in a breath. 

"I- I don't, Tony please it's gone and I can't even..." He sobs, "I can't _do this anymore,_ Tony, I can't-" He knows he's not making much sense, but everything's jumbled in his brain and he still can't believe this is happening, he still can't believe it's Tony. 

Ton shushes him in his ramble. "Hey, hey, hey, listen to me Peter," Peter goes quiet, "I'm gonna get you out, okay? I'm gonna get you out and you're gonna be fine, you just-" Tony swallows, "You just need to hold on for me, okay? Baby? I know it's hard but I'm gonna find you, I promise." Peter sniffles, "You're the strongest person I know, Pete, so please just- just hold on, I'm coming." 

Peter sobs again in response, not sure if he can keep the promise, it's all becoming to much, and he just wants to go home. 

He can hear Tony shuffle a little on the other line, "Peter," His voice suddenly serious, "I just need you to answer this, okay?" 

Peter sniffles, "Okay." 

"Do you have any idea where you are?"

Peter goes quiet. 

He knows he's in a prison, he knows it's cold and that it's abandoned, but he has no idea where it's located, he barley knows anything at all. 

"I- I'm at a prison." He says. 

He hears Tony drag in a breath, "Okay, okay." He says. "Do you have any idea where it is?" 

Peter swallows, "No," He squeezes his eyes shut, "No I- I don't know." 

"Okay, okay it's okay, just-" Tony pauses, "You can just- details I- can you tell me any details about the place?" 

Peter leans back a little and looks around the room, seeing the stone covered walls and concrete floor looming darkly in front of him. He knows the place is in the middle of nowhere, from when he was up on the roof, he doesn't remember ever seeing anything remotely close that could be civilization, only forest as far as his sight would take him. 

"I'm- I'm in a forest, the prison that is." He explains. 

"Okay, okay." Tony says. "Do you know anything else?" 

Peter thinks hard, he thinks about how the outside looked like, but he barley remembers much except how doomed he'd felt standing on that rooftop. 

Peter chokes on a breath. "I- I'm sorry, no I- It's- it's all just a forest and I don't-" He sniffles. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry Tony but I don't-" 

"Hey, hey, it's okay Pete, it's okay, you're doing so good, buddy, so good, just- do you have any idea what the prison looks like?" Tony asks. 

Peter looks around the place again, his heart beating in his chest still. "It- it's cold..." He says a bit lamely. 

Tony clears his throat. "Okay, but I'm gonna need more than that, bud." He says carefully. 

Peter thinks. "It's- There's stone walls and... It's- It's big and... and abandoned... I'm sorry, Tony I don't- "

Tony shushes him, "It's okay, Pete, we can work with that." Peter sniffles in response. 

Tony pauses for a moment, and Peter almost starts begging him to keep talking, keep talking so he knows he's there, but luckily Tony comes back again. "Alright, let's do this another way." there's more shuffling on the other line, and peter sniffles again. "Peter?" Tony asks.

"Yeah?" He responds. 

"Do you have any idea how far away you are from New York?" 

Peter blinks at the question. "I- no I- I don't even know where I am." He says confused. 

"I know, but I'm gonna need you to think really hard now, petey." Tony says. "Have you changed location anytime, or have you been at the same place until now?" 

Peter tries to think, tries to remember if Beck ever took him somewhere else, but he's pretty sure he didn't, he's never been unconscious long enough for Beck to have taken him asleep, _~~the pain was always too strong for a long time to have past.~~_

"No, I've been here the whole time." Peter says, biting his lip. 

"Okay, that's good, really good," Tony takes a deep breath. "And do you have any idea how much time past between when Beck-" Tony clears his throat, "When you left the school and ended up where you are now?" 

Peter frowns, his brain working through any memory he has of his first day; he remembers waking up to hand in his hair, he remembers the pit that formed in his stomach when he realized it wasn't Tony, he remembers Beck talking to him, growing more and more aggressive as the time past, he remembers feeling stiff...

Peter perks up at the memory, "I was restrained when I woke up, -which was on the first day- but I remember also being a bit paralyzed after the pen... thing, which means it-"

"-Can't have been more than a day." Tony finishes.

Peter huffs a breathless laugh, "Yeah." 

Tony laughs a bit delirious, the smile clear in his voice, "God, of course! Pete you're a genius!" Peter's mouth quirks just slightly at the sound of how happy Tony sounds, he wants to hide in the feeling forever, just hearing the man happy is enough for his heart to calm down, just for a moment, 

_And god he's missed this._

"Okay, so all we need to do is just, find the area in which how far you can travel from New York in a day, and then scan all the prison's that you can reach under that time. I guess we also have to calculate the speed limits?... But then again, Beck might as well have broken all of them... But at the same time why would he risk getting pulled over when he was already committing a crime? Oh and also-"

Peter smiles for the first time in weeks as Tony rambles on, letting himself relax into the sound of his home, the home he's been missing for so long. If he closes his eyes he can almost pretend he's with Tony again, like he's just explaining a really hard equation in the lab and the time is way too late for them to be up. 

He hasn't felt this safe ever since he arrived here, but Tony has always had that reaction from him, every time the man walks into a room it's like his senses goes to sleep, or like a cloud surrounding him, his mind knowing Tony would rather die than letting him get hurt. 

(He tried explaining how it felt once to Tony, telling the man to sit down at the couch while he went to fetch the most softest comforter he could find, the look Tony had given him when Peter had wrapped him up in three different blankets was probably the most adoring look he's ever seen on that man, Peter's insides always warms up at the memory.) 

Peter keeps listening, making noises of agreements from time to time to assure Tony he's there, and he could stay here forever, his mentor's voice in his ear calming him and keeping him safe. 

But of course, the universe can't even let him keep this. 

Peter's head snaps up when he hears it, way above him where any normal person wouldn't hear anything, but Peter does, and his heart starts beating faster and faster when he hears the sound coming closer. 

_Beck._

_Nonononononono..._

His breath starts picking up, and his head snaps to the medbay doors at the end of the hallway, the only way he can get away from the pain. 

Tony notices his panicked state too, because the man stops talking, even though Peter could barley hear him in the first place because of the blood rushing through his ears. 

"Pete? Peter? Kid what's going on? You're breathing way to fast for my liking here." Tony says a bit nervous.

Peter swallows. "I- I- He's- He's coming," He breathes in panic, "He's coming, Tony, He's- please I-" He chokes on a breath, "I- I need to go, I need to- no, no please I can't-" 

"Peter wait-" 

"I have to- he'll hurt me- it hurts Tony- I- I'm sorry I-" Peter sobs. _Why did he had to come now?_ "I need to go, I'm sorry." 

"Pete? Peter!" 

Peter sniffles, "I'm sorry." 

"Kid!" 

Peter puts the phone back at it's place, Tony's voice dying off as the silence surround him, Peter stares at the phone, breath hitching when a loud _clang_ is heard from above. 

He doesn't wait another second before he's leaving the phone booth, running off into the darkened hallway before Beck can see he's been up to, wishing he could hear Tony's voice one last time. 

He never realized how deafening silence can be. 

* * *

"Peter!" Tony screams into his phone, but the kid has already hung up, leaving Tony alone on the line.

"Fuck." Tony breathes, dragging a hand over his face as he falls back in his bed. 

He can't believe he just talked to Peter, he can't believe Peter was talking and _responding_ to what he said, he has no idea how the kid got in contact with a phone in the first place, Beck apparently didn't know about it, which to be honest makes the smallest of pride grow in his stomach, but it's quickly gone when the silence in his bedroom just gets louder.

Tony shakes his head, Peter's voice still ringing in his ears as he squeezes his eyes shut. 

He can't get the words that left the kid's mouth out of his head, how scared and panicked Peter sounded, begging Tony to save him, telling him that he _can't_ _do this anymore._

God, how close is the kid to breaking? How many more days will it take before his kid crumbles? How many days will it take before Tony will finally find him only to be met with a corpse rotting away in some abandoned prison. 

_Prison,_ holy shit, his kid is in a _prison,_ he had been searching through empty warehouses and abandoned cabins but it never occurred to him that Beck has taken Peter to a place that is basically _meant_ for keeping people inside, away from the civilization, Peter's worse nightmare coming to life, because _of course_ that's where Beck took him. 

He hates how easy Beck's plan is, how easy and how _obvious_ it is, and yet Tony haven't even come close to finding his kid, and instead Peter had to jeopardize the little free time he had away from Beck to physically _tell_ Tony where he might be. 

_God, he's never felt like such a failure as he does now._

He keeps rewinding back to their conversation, keeps thinking about how he's never heard the kid sound like that, terrified and disoriented and just _so fucking scared,_ the kid had been stuttering words all over the place, Tony barely hanging on to what he was saying from how wobbly Peter's voice had been. 

And still, the one thing he couldn't figure out what Peter had been talking about, when Peter's voice became haunted with combination of fear, panic and almost pleading, was when he'd rambled on about: 

_"It's gone, Tony, it's- it's gone-"_

_"I- I don't, Tony please it's gone and I can't even... I can't do this anymore, Tony, I can't-"_

The words are repeating themselves over and over in his head, the way Peter's voice breaks at the end, the way he rambles about something being gone that Tony has no idea what on earth Peter could have meant, how guilty the kid sounded when he told him he can't hold on.

Tony presses the heels of his hands against his eyes, heaving out a long breath as he almost sees stars. He's in his own room right now, semi-forced after the team had practically yelled at him to go to bed, telling him that he wouldn't be any good for Peter if he lived through every day while swaying and cross-eyed, so he grumpily promised them that he would close his eyes for a few hours. 

And then he woke up by his phone vibrating like crazy, and all of a sudden the thought of _resting_ was completely forgotten.

He lays in the bed for a little while longer, his mind trying to untie his thoughts after the emotional train wreck he just went through. He grabs his phone absentmindedly and looks at it, getting ready to deliver the news to the few Avengers who's still up, but it all feels a bit safer this way, Tony being the only person knowing about his and Peter's conversation they just had, like telling anyone about it will break some sort of trust between the two. 

He knows it's stupid, and selfish, but he hasn't felt this close to Peter under the whole three weeks he's been gone, and now he had just talked to him, and it all feels so unreal.

He's been begging for this to happen, praying to God or whoever's up there to just show him something, a sign that Peter's alive, just a small minute to talk to him, and now he had, and yet it all feels hollow, like the voice he just heard wasn't Peter, like the conversation had just been his mind slowly losing it's sanity.

He wouldn't be surprised if it is. 

Nonetheless, he slowly starts rising up from his bed, getting ready to deliver the information that Peter's _alive_ and that they might actually find him now. But even so he feels numb, after so many false alarms they've had, he's been having a hard time getting out of the haste that's been built up around him, the hope slowly fading away into nothingness as they endure more and more failures, more and more signs that it's _over._

Peter's been counting on him this whole time, waited and waited for Tony to save him only to have to do it himself in the end, because Tony is a failure, he's a failure who can't keep the most precious thing in his life safe, the thing that changed his life and made him _better._

He wants to scream, he wants to tear apart everything in his way while cursing his life, cursing it for taking every little good thing away from him, for making him exist when all he does is just destroying everything he touches. 

He knew Peter would have always been better off without him. 

With a deep sigh, he stands up from the bed, clutching his phone like a lifeline as he walks through the darkened room, the soft glow from the cracks of the door guiding him to it. He walks quietly out into the hallway, cautious for the few Avengers also taking a nap from the past weeks chaos, they're all sleeping in guest rooms, since it's closest to the living area where they're constantly searching for updates and places. 

He walks quietly, his gaze lingering on Peter's door without realizing it as he makes his way through the corridor, the only sound being the small _hum_ from FRIDAY as she constantly keeps an eye on the building. He stops just outside Peter's room, like he used to do every time he took a night walk to see if Peter was awake too, if he was the kid would join him, since it was an easy way for the both of them to calm down after any thoughts they might have been having. 

Now though, the room is empty, May having a stop by at her apartment to clean it up a little bit and getting new clothes, since she hasn't been there for two weeks. Pepper decided to join her, helping her with the tidying while also keeping her distracted, hence why Tony was sleeping alone this night. 

Tony sighs, feeling so goddamn tired yet awake at the same time, he hates all of this, hates that Peter has to suffer because _Tony's_ enemy wants him to suffer, this isn't Peter's fight, and yet he's the one taking the punches.

He stares at Peter's door for a few moments, before he keeps walking, the hallway lit in a soft glow as the stars tinkles outside the windows, New York breathing and living right under him as the light from the thousands of buildings shines through the darkness, a view Peter could never get enough of every time he came to visit. 

He smiles a little at the memory, of all those times he'd find Peter curled up right next to a window, blankets and pillows spread out on the floor as the kid would look out over the city, the light from the buildings reflecting like lanterns in the kid's chocolate brown eyes.

He would take a seat next to the kid when he found him like that, legs crossed on the ground as Peter would slowly start inching towards him, until his head found Tony's lap to use as a pillow. No words were ever spoken on those nights, the only motion being his hand dragging through Peter's curls, scratching and undoing knots as his kid relaxed more and more in his hold, his lips quirking up when Peter finally fell asleep. 

His own hand twitched at the memory, hating how long it's been since he felt Peter's curls under his palm, since he felt his kid at all. 

Tony heaves out a breath, dragging his hands through his hair as he promptly keeps his gaze away from the windows, picking up his pace a little as he keeps clutching his phone. 

By the time he's arrived at the living quarters, his heart is beating loudly in his ears, his hands are shaking as he sees the three people that are still awake. 

Its just Bruce, Rhodey and Sam; Rhodey being on the phone while talking frantically, probably keeping an eye on the whole ordeal with all the guards at the warehouse, making sure to keep everyone who helped Beck safe. The colonel meets his gaze once, raising an eyebrow as to silently ask why he isn't in bed, before he's back to ramble into the phone. 

Both Bruce and Sam are checking out something on a laptop in between them, but they turn their heads towards him when they notice the new presence in the room, the disheveling look he's no doubt radiating off of himself being enough to make Bruce close the laptop, while leveling a concern look his way. 

"Tony?" Bruce asks as Tony breathes heavily, "Is everything alright?" 

Tony looks down at the phone in his hand, suddenly finding it very hard to form words as he realizes what he just went through. 

His silence stretches long enough for Rhodey to look over at him, he can distantly hear Rhodey mumble to the person on the phone to call him back, even with the blood rushing through his ears. 

"Tones?" He snaps his gaze to Rhodey, who's a bit closer to him now, "Hey, man, what's going on?" His friend sets a hand on his shoulder, something Rhodey had learned all the way back in college grounds him. 

He opens his mouth a couple of times, and looks down at the phone, and up at Rhodey again, the realization dawning on him as he heaves out a breath. "I just talked to Peter." He says disbelievingly, staring into his friend's eyes. 

Silence interrupts the room, the three Avengers wearing an identical lock of shock as they stare back at him, Tony swear even FRIDAY seems to have stopped her usual humming. 

"What?" Sam asks after a few minutes of quiet, "You're- you're kidding, right?"

Tony shakes his head, slumping his shoulders as he starts walking towards to the couch. "No I- It was him, Peter fucking, _called_ me somehow and-" He sits down heavily in the couch and puts his head in his hands, "He _talked_ to me." 

He can hear the sound of feet shuffling before the couch dip besides him, and a warm hand is placed on his shoulder. "What did he say?" Rhodey asks.

Tony turns his head to look at his friend. "He said he... was at a prison, a- abandoned that is, we did some calculations and..." He trails off. 

"And?" Sam pushes. 

He heaves out a breath, "He's just around 24 hours away from us." He looks between the stunned heroes watching him. "He- he hasn't changed location once and... he woke up still stiff after the sonic-taser Beck used on him, which means it can't have been more than a day and- God Rhodey, he sounded so _scared."_

Rhodey nods. "I bet he was, Tones, but we know where to look now, we're gonna find him." Tony appreciates his friend trying to make him look at the bright side, but he's tired of getting let down over and over by failures and dead-ends, Peter depends on him and yet he wasn't the one finding the leads, he wasn't the one that took them closer to his kid. 

"FRIDAY wake everyone up and call them down here, tell them it's about Peter." Sam orders the AI in the background, and he can hear Bruce having retreated to the kitchen to probably make some nourishment for the just-woken-up-Avengers, but all he can focus on is Rhodey's hand on his shoulder and Peter's voice in his ear. 

There's a few minutes of silence, before the sound of five different footsteps coming from the hall gets everyone's attention. Tony and the other's in the living area snaps their gazes towards it, only to be met with five disheveled and tired looking Avengers stumbling into the room. 

Natasha, Clint, Wanda, Bucky and Steve has come to join them, the heroes looking like they can't decide if they should be irritated or concerned for being woken up at such a late hour, Tony can almost hear Peter's adorable giggle he'd do if he saw the team like this. 

"Well, looks like it's time to save our little Spidey-kid," Rhodey declares, patting him on the back as he looks into his eyes, "You ready to bring him home?" 

He doesn't understand how Rhodey can possibly have so much confidence in this, this isn't their first search, and there's a highly percents change it won't be their last, but he doesn't comment on it, instead he just nods numbly before he stands up, and turns to the team watching him with curious and tired eyes. 

"Well guys," Tony smiles just slightly, "Looks like we got some ransacking to do." 

And God he hopes this will go well. 

He explains the phone call he had with Peter, explains what they came up with when calculating the destination, forcing his voice from not getting too overwhelmed when he tells them that _yes, Peter's alive._

He never knew how happy those words could make him. 

The team is listening in dead-focus, barely touching the cookies Bruce managed to make for them as Tony rambles on, his arms waving frantically as they're all seated around the coffee table. The air is tense as he describes the panicked state Peter was in, and how Beck interrupted him before Peter could give more information, thunder sparks in everyone's eyes when he explains that part. 

"Okay, so," Wanda speaks after Tony's done, "How are we doing this exactly?" 

They all look at Tony from her words. 

Tony sighs. "I've ordered FRIDAY to scan all the prisons in a 24 hour radius, and from there we should be able to point out all the abandoned once that Beck might be using," He explains. "after that we'll split up in how many groups we'll need when we search for Pete, the faster we find him the better." There's a few nods in understanding. 

"But when we find the right one," Bucky suddenly says, "Won't there be guards protecting the place? If we split in groups they might overpower us, -no sorry-, they _will_ overpower us." 

Sam just raises an eyebrow at the soldier, "We are literally the _Avengers._ " 

Bucky glares back at him, "We've seen them take down the most strongest teen we've ever met, Sam, they aren't exactly amateurs." 

"Peter could take them down," Sam exclaims, "he was probably just a little distracted by _having his muscles paralyzed."_ He spits. 

Bucky rolls his eyes, "Still doesn't mean we shouldn't be cautious, if anything goes wrong it's Peter who has to pay for the price." 

"Barnes," Clint cuts in, "I don't know if you remember, but almost everyone in here fought: One: A worm hole spitting out a bunch of aliens. Two: A murderous AI wanting to eliminate the whole planet. And three: took down a corrupt part of the government," Clint points at Steve and Nat, "stopped a terrorist," He points at Tony. "and saved you from getting your ass into jail." He ends with pointing at Bucky. 

Bucky huffs and rolls his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest, and a heavy silence fills the room.

Tony watches Steve sitting in one of the armchairs bite his lip as Bucky and Sam has a stare down, before the soldier says: "He's right, Buck, if we want this to go fast, splitting up is the best way to do it." Steve turns his gaze to Tony. "Peter doesn't deserve to wait any longer." Tony stares back at the soldier, emotions welling up in his throat. 

"Boss," FRIDAY suddenly says as the room grows quiet. "I have found all the different places for Mr. Parker to be located at." 

Tony perks up along with the team, and they've all turned to stare at him again, but Tony doesn't pay them any mind as he leans forward to grab the laptop Bruce had been using. 

"How many?" 

There's a small silence as everyone waits impatiently for FRIDAY's words.

"28, Boss." FRIDAY says quietly. 

Clint chokes on the cookie he'd been eating at the AI's words. 

_"28?"_ The archer coughs, "How the fuck are we suppose to find him quickly if we have to search through _28 different places?"_

"We'll still find him, Clint." Wanda interjects. 

"Oh yes, we'll find him _dead."_

There's a big chorus of _"Clint!"_ At the archer's words, but Tony just feels a pit form in his stomach.

"We will not find him _dead."_ Steve assures the crowd, but has his gaze locked on Tony. "Peter's way stronger than that." 

"Look, I don't want to be pessimistic, but Peter has already been there for almost a _month,"_ Clint says. "We know all the shit Beck is putting him through, so him _waiting_ is not something that will keep him _alive."_ Clint turns his gaze to Tony. "Yes he's a strong kid, but we need to find a faster way. We know where he might be, we already have options for it, so we can at least try. _"_

The room grows quiet once again, and the words repeat themselves in Tony's head, 

_Afasterwayfasterwayafasterwayafasterwayafasterway?_

"Well if we're gonna do this faster then we need a plan _now,"_ Natasha says sternly after a minute of silence, "We'll leave at dawn and we better have decided what we are gonna do until then." 

"Well, Clint's the one wanting to rush this whole thing that could potentially be our death, so why don't we ask him?" Bucky sneers. 

Clint glares at him, "Oh I'm sorry for not wanting Peter to get hurt more than he's already been." He sneers back. 

"We can't go into this unplanned, Clint." Bucky argues. "Like I said before, If anything goes wrong Peter will be then one paying the price, so unless you have a good idea how to bring down that number of prisons, we'll simply have to do it the long way." The solider says sternly.

"No, Clint is right, we have to find another way." Tony cuts in, felling everyone's eyes land on him. He's slumped against the couch with his head pointed at the ceiling, dreading the words he's about to say. 

A confused silence stretches on, waiting for Tony to explain, but he can barley move his eyes with how exhausted he feels, really not liking where this conversation will go. 

"And why's that, Tony?" Steve asks after a while. 

Tony inhales sharply before he sits abruptly up in his seat, his elbows resting on his knees as he puts his head in his hands, "Because there's a big chance Beck will find out we're looking for him before we've even found the right prison." He grits, anger welling over him. 

"We don't know that, Beck might be smart but we'll just silence any person working for him before they can contact him." Bucky says. 

Tony shakes his head, "No, Beck has eyes everywhere, wouldn't surprise me if he knew what we were doing the moment we take off with the quinjet." At that, he stands up, dragging his hands through his hair as he walks around the couch and starts pacing. 

"How, can you _possibly_ know that?" Sam asks. 

Tony swallows and stops, he takes a deep breath. "Because he found out about the last time we were looking for Peter." He looks as everyone stares at him. 

Clint frowns. "You mean the speech Pepper held? Pretty sure he was _suppose_ to have known about that." 

"What? _No._ " Tony rolls his eyes, "I mean the warehouse where we saved Bill Harper's daughter, Beck found out about it." 

He sees Natasha scrunch her eyebrows together from where she's sitting at one of the ottomans. "I thought you kept everything away from the news?" 

Tony throws his arms up in the air, "Exactly! But he knows we did it and because of that he..." Tony cuts himself off when he realizes what he was about to say, and he squeezes his eyes shut, pressing the heels of his hands into them as he can practically feel the worried gazes the others are throwing at him.

"What did he do, Tony?" Bruce asks quietly. 

Tony looks up at his team-mates, his eyes on the verge of tears as the memories hits him, and he swallows, looking down at the ground as he inhales a ragged breath, before he says, "FRI?" His voice almost a whisper, but he knows his AI will hear it. "Would you bring it up?"

FRIDAY doesn't need to ask what he's talking about, before she projects the text and video Beck sent him a few days earlier on the TV. He sees his friends turn their gazes hesitantly towards the screen, Tony doesn't. 

He waits for the stunned silence that will come.

_"An unanimous video and text was just received on your mobile device, Boss." FRIDAY called out from the speakers in his lab._

_Tony looked up from the laptop where he'd been checking everything was going alright with Bill's_ _house arrest, and felt worry bubble in his gut at her words. It was Beck, no doubt, that bastard had been constantly sending him pictures of Peter, horrible once he was sure will never leave his head, but he still looked at them, just to check if there was any sign in the background on where Peter might be. It's naive and stupid, but he did it anyway, every little thing that might take them one step closer to his kid is important, even if it meant getting nightmares for the next few decades in the process._

_He dragged in a wobbly breath, hands gripping the edge of the table as he prepared himself for the worst. "Bring it up." He ordered, voice a bit strained. FRIDAY didn't say another word before she was pulling it up on his laptop. Tony swallowed._

_[The video started with a view of Peter, arms bounded over his head in a rope hanging from the ceiling, squeezing his eyes shut and tear tracks visible on his face. He whimpered, head hung low against his chest as his overgrown curls almost completely covered his eyes, Tony could hear Beck chuckling a little behind the camera._

_The camera moved forward, until it was placed on a small bench in front of Peter, giving Tony a full view of his nightmare playing out in front of his eyes, he clenched his fists._

_A figure walked into view then, a figure that quickly revealed to be Beck, smile on his lips, but Tony could still see thunder in his eyes, as if he was forcing himself from getting angry, a chill creeped up his spine at the thought._

_"Hello, Stark." Beck gritted out angrily through his smile. "I heard you and your pals decided to pay a visit at one of my castles, real shame I wasn't there, I've been dying to meet you all." Beck moved his hand to Peter's hair, just like he did in the first video, but Peter stayed still this time, tensing but now moving. Anger started bubbling in his stomach at the sight._

_"I did wonder how you found that place, though." Beck admitted. "I was really careful when I hid it, made sure everyone promised me to keep it a secret, but I guess some of them were real tattle tales." He shrugs. "Not that I'm surprised, but at least_ some _loyalty would've been nice."_

 _Tony watched as Beck caressed his knuckles on Peter's cheek, and felt himself crumble when Peter_ leaned into it, _the kid's barely conscious as it was, but it still set a stinging feeling in in his stomach when he realized how touch starved Peter must be._

_Please universe, for the love of all that is holy, give my kid a fucking break._

_"You wanna say hi to your daddy Stark, Petey?" Beck suddenly said, a bit quieter in Peter's direction. "He's been dying to talk with you, and it's a bit rude not to answer, don't you think?"_

_Peter slowly lifted his head, and a bit formed in his stomach as he looked into Peter's broken and anguished gaze, bruised eyes and red cheeks with visible tear tracks on them. A scar stretches itself over Peter's face, like a knife had ran over his skin, Peter's whole appearance was dirty and greasy, looking like he hadn't had a shower in days._

_He wouldn't be surprised if that was the case._

_Peter stared into the camera, a gut wrenching sob escaped his way to small frame before Peter's mouth started moving, except there was no sound escaping them, only wheezed breaths that barely made out Peter's voice._

_"HELP ME." His kid mouthed, another sob escapes him. "PLEASE."_

_Tony stared at his kid, his kid who brought sunshine everywhere he went and who's giggles would be enough scare away any darkness wanting to consume everyone, the kid who would grab his hand whenever he would hear his heartbeat pick up, who would crawl into his bed after a nightmare and fall asleep on his chest, head under his chin with his hand holding Tony's._

_That kid was gone now, locked deep inside a scared and hurt child who was begging for help, begging_ Tony _for help, and yet Tony still hasn't, every day there's a new lead, and everyday that_ _lead turns into a dead-end, all while Peter keeps suffering, starved for affection in the process._

_Beck chuckled a little at Peter's silent cries, grinning darkly before he stepped away from the kid. Tony frowned as he went out of view, watching as Peter tries to glance at Beck but failed when exhaustion hit him, letting his head fall to his chest again._

_A minute goes by without much happening, when all of a sudden Peter's breath hitched, Tony looked back at him and realized the kid has his gaze locked on the side where Beck went out of view, terror invaded his kid's eyes as the kid started to plead:_

_"No, no, no, please Mr. Beck I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, please-"_

_A slap cut the kid off, his head snapped to the side by the force of it as Beck stood and glared. An almost blue shade flared up on his kid's cheek, and a fearsome cry escaped Peter's lips, when Tony realized what Peter was so scared off._

_Beck was holding an iron tong, but what terrified him more was the burning coal the tong was clutching at the end, still red from the heat, Tony's heart was beating in his ears as Beck brought the tong closer to Peter._

_His kid was practically panting with fear as he tried to struggle away from the coal getting closer to him, begging Beck for mercy, but to Tony's fury, Beck just laughed at the distressed kid, before he swiftly pushed the coal deeper and deeper into Peter's neck._

_A cry interrupted the audio, and all Tony could do was watch in mute horror as Peter squeezed his eyes shut, mouth open as cry after scream escaped it. Peter sobbed, before another scream cut him off, Beck moving the coal all over his body and pressing it hard against Peter's skin. His kid jerked to the sides, trying to get away from the coal but to no avail as Beck just grinned maniacally at him._

_Tears streamed down Peter's cheeks, eyes red and puffy when Beck_ finally _stopped, leaving him panting and sobbing as his kid slumped in the chains holding him up. His kid took one more look at the camera, bruised eyes with a burn-scar under the left one staring in anguish at the camera, when Peter suddenly started blinking fast._

_It took a moment for Tony to realize what he was doing, but once it did if felt like a socket punch right into his stomach._

_His kid was blinking in Morse-code._

_H....E....L....P.......M.....E...._

_Tony stared helplessly at the camera, feeling his own tears fall down his cheeks, when Beck suddenly turned to the camera, tong still in hand as he smiled at Tony, before he gives one last wink to the camera, and the video goes black.]_

_Tony slumped back in his chair, hand over his mouth as he stared through teary eyes at the blackened screen. He squeezed his eyes shut, and a sob wrecked through him before he banged his fist on the table, the sound echoing through the empty lab as he brought up his arm and screamed in the crock of it._

_It took over five minutes for him to calm down, the images of his Peter getting hurt and begging for his life playing over and over in his head, every image worse than the other, but he pushed them away, just like he's done with everything else in the last three weeks, only focusing on the current mission and updates from the police and his team._

_He took a deep breath, and slowly sat up straighter in his chair, dragging a hand through his hair as he stared at the message that was also sent to him. He couldn't see what it said yet, but he knew he couldn't throw it away either, every little information about Peter was important, no matter how much it physically hurt him to look at it._

_And so, with his heart beating in his ears, he opened it._

_There was officially ten seconds of stunned reading, before his breath left his body as he jumped out of his chair and bolted to the nearest toilet, it only took a few seconds of finding one, and he practically threw himself at it before he was hurling up his last dinner._

_When he was done he slumped back against the wall, feeling like dead weight as his mind processed what the fuck that text just said._

_Beck was threatening him, telling him that if he ever decided to invade another one of his "castles" Peter would endure a fate even crueler to the once he currently had, much, much crueler._

_Tony pressed the palm of his hands to his eyes as he remembered the vivid details Beck had written, the words the sentences, it all added up to his desperate attempt at pushing away the nausea threatening to invade a second time._

_"No." He breathed, closing his eyes as he shook his head. "No, no, no," The thoughts were invading, the images burning in his mind as the words in the text repeat themselves over and over in his head. He didn't realize his vision fading out slowly as everything became to much, his muscles became heavy, his eyelids closing, but he keeps chanting No into the thin air, before even his voice gives up on him and he falls limp on the ground._

_"NO."_

Tony snaps back into present when he hears the cries from Peter playing on the TV, he doesn't dare look back, but he sees Rhodey in the corner of his eye wearing the most pained expression he's ever seen on that man, Tony presses his hands against his ears in an attempt to block Peter's anguished cries away. 

The team watches in mutual horror as the video drags on, until the only sound that's left after the video is everyone's frantic breathing. Tony risks a glance at them only to immediately regret his actions when he's met with looks of haunted and pained expressions.

Steve, Bruce and Bucky has all slumped back in their seats, Natasha is clenching her fists white while Clint is pressing his own against his mouth. Tony almost regrets showing it to them, but this was the only way to make them understand the urgency. 

"There was a text, too." Tony says quietly after a while. He can feel everyone's gaze on him, but he retreats his own to the ground, not wanting to see anymore of his team-mates broken expressions. 

"And what did it say?" Bruce chokes out after a while.

Tony clenches his fists, dragging in a hard breath through his nose as his mind involuntarily reminds him of those words again, he can't let that happen to Peter, he just _can't._

"That if we ever try to fight him again, or ruin his plan," He swallows. "Peter will get punished for it by..." He shakes his head, pressing his fists into his eyes. 

He explains what the text said.

He sees his team-mates expressions change as he explains, he sees the rage, the shock, the absolute horror that arrives as the aftermath drags on. 

They're all just starring into nothing as the time goes by, until Clint is slamming his fist on the coffee table, making everyone jump in their seats as they turn to look at him. 

Clint's eyes are thundering with rage, a string of curses escapes the man as he stands abruptly up from his seat and starts walking away from them. 

"Clint-" 

"Hey man, where'r you goin?" 

"Clint we need to focus-" 

"Clint I know this is hard but-" 

Clint stops in his tracks and turns around as he glares. "But what?!" He exclaims. 

Their focus is lands on Steve, who is looking at the archer knowingly. "Whatever your plan is right now, we need to think it through first." 

"Yeah what were you gonna do? Grab your bow and just start aiming at people?" 

Clint scoffs. "I'm gonna do way more than that." 

Tony closes his eyes as he lowers his head to his chest. "Clint-" 

"What? What is it, Tony?" Clint snaps. "Isn't this what you wanted to do? Getting rid of Beck? Getting Peter back? Getting _your child_ back?" Tony squeezes his eyes shut with a few others in the room at the archer's words. 

"I don't even understand," Clint continues. "Why on earth does it seem like I'm the _only one_ on this team who wants to find that asshole so we can _actually_ get Peter back? "

"We're _trying,_ Clint." Wanda snaps back. "We're getting closer and closer each day that follows, just look at what we got now, with this information we'll find Peter sooner than ever." 

"No, with this information we know that if Beck ever finds out we're onto him, Peter might as well already be dead." 

"Alright that's enough." Steve interrupts. Tony glances up to see Steve looking at him reassuringly. "We will not find Peter dead, but we still need a plan for this, so stop fighting with each other and instead come up with something that can get us to Peter in the fastest and safest way outside of Beck's knowledge." 

The room goes quiet, Clint huffs a breath before he goes back to take a place on the ottoman next to Natasha. 

"We don't need to stay under his radar," Tony says quietly after a while, feeling everyone looking up at him. "We just need to find Peter before Beck even has the chance to do... You know." He sees everyone wince at his words. 

"There's 28 different prisons, Tony," Clint sighs. "We'll never find him in time." 

Tony furrows his brows in concentration, they need to exclude a lot of the locations if they want this to go fast, but there wasn't much to go off on how Peter's place looked like, other than the scared and panicked explanations his kid gave him when they were talking. 

He has a feeling that won't leave him anytime soon, either.

But that's when an idea pops into his head, his eyes widen as he snaps his gaze up. "Wait a second," He whispers to himself before he shouts, _"FRIDAY,_ is there a way for you to see if any of the jailhouses are using electricity for the moment?" 

The team looks up at him with their eyebrows raised, probably getting what he's looking for. 

FRIDAY pauses. "I'll try to hack into every security camera I can find at the locations to see which once are still usable, it may take a while though." 

"Do it." Tony orders. 

Steve frowns and turns to him. "Electricity?" 

Tony smirks, just a little bit. "Beck needs electricity, right? If FRIDAY can find the place that's currently using it, we'll find Beck immediately."

Bruce blinks at him. "I- why the hell didn't we think of that before?" 

Tony shrugs, but he feels the relief flooding through him, they have locations now, they have proof Peter's alive, they just have to wait for FRIDAY's searchers and they'll finally find the place Peter's captured in, they'll finally get him back. 

Get him back, this is the closest they've ever been to that before. 

Now all they have to do is wait. 

The time drags on as they wait for FRIDAY's answers, small conversations is shared between the team while the sun slowly creeps up in the horizon. They haven't talked like this for a whole month, ever since Peter went missing the only conversations they've had has been about progress and updates, but now it almost feels like before, when the team had been the closest to a family, even though the silence between them that used to be Peter is impossible to ignore.

And everyone else seems to be silently agreeing on that, too. 

everything's darker in a way, Peter had always been the one keeping the conversations going to make the team grow stronger and stronger after Siberia, there was never room for unimportant arguing, instead those moments became ways to understand each other better, Tony's still baffled by how the kid could've possibly pulled that off. 

But then again, it's Peter he's talking about here. 

_"It's not Mr Barnes fault, you know." Peter's quiet voice rang out one day in the lab._

_Tony, who'd been changing Dum-E's tires for the last two hours, snapped his head up to look at the Spiderling sitting a few feet away from him, gaze locked on his homework rather than Tony._

_Tony sighed, before retreating to Dum-E again, "It's not your business, bud, so just stay out of it, okay?"_

_Peter huffed in frustration. "It's about you and it's about something that hits you really hard, so yeah, it kind is my business."_

_Tony looked up at Peter again, but the kid still didn't face him. He rolled his eyes. "Pete, whatever Barnes did and didn't doesn't matter-"_

_"And yet he's still getting in prison for it?" Peter turned to face him now, anger written on his face. "Tony, he didn't do any of those things willingly."_

_"Peter, you've never even met him before."_

_Peter rolled his eyes. "He was a person getting forced to do horrible things against his will, whether I've met him or not doesn't change the fact that he's an innocent person."_

_"No he- Dammit Peter!" Tony banged his fist on the table, making Dum-E squeal a little as Peter jumped in his chair, gaze back on his homework._

_It got silent, Tony breathing heavily as he tried to regain control._

_"He still is, though." Peter said quietly after a while. Tony snapped his gaze up again and glared, but Peter just sighed. "Look, I know I'm not the one having a say in this but," Peter paused. "Sometimes the one pulling the trigger isn't the killer."_

_Tony didn't answer for a while, but Peter didn't seem to mind as he went back to his homework instead._

_At last, Tony closed his eyes as he quietly said, "He's still a murderer." His heart was beating in his ears._

_He felt Peter's gaze land on him, but he didn't meet it, instead just kept his gaze on Dum-E, before he heard small footsteps come padding towards him. The sound of a chair getting pulled from somewhere echoed in the lab, and he saw Peter taking a seat next to him in the corner of his eye, when he felt a warm weight on his shoulder._

_Peter was resting his head on it, and Tony felt an immediate calmness wash over him, his heart slowing down in the process._

_"Everyone deserves a second chance." Peter said quietly after a while._

_Tony sighed as he rested his head on Peter's, "Everyone?" For some reason he had a feeling Peter wasn't just talking about Barnes._

_Peter shrugged. "At least the once who wants to redeem themselves."_

_A warm feeling lighted up in his stomach._

_Tony smiled and let his eyes close. "You're the most fascinating kid I've ever met."_

_He felt Peter's lips curve up into a smile against his shoulder, "'S my best quality."_

_Tony snorted, but hugged the boy a bit closer anyway._

_He forgave Barnes the next day._

He hates that he always used to take those moments for granted, every little time he spent with the kid was just brushed of as an everyday thing, like he wasn't spending his time with a kid decades younger than him, and yet the kid's mind could rival the wisest and most clever people ever lived. 

Peter had been through hell over and over in his life, from his parents, to Skip, to his uncle, and now this. Tony doesn't understand, He doesn't understand how Peter could deserve _any_ of this, how a person can look into those chocolate-brown eyes and decide they want to drain them of their spark, of their life. 

It was all just so, _so unfair._

Tony sighs and returns to resting his head on the back of the couch, waiting impatiently for FRIDAY to bring up the results as his team-mates awkwardly tries to keep the conversation going. 

He lets himself zone out a little, knowing FRIDAY will probably take at least twenty minutes to check all of the locations, if not sooner, 

_it's his AI after all._

And turns out, FRIDAY did it in fifteen minutes.

"Boss," FRIDAY called out of the speakers as Tony's head snaps up with everyone else's. "I have successfully been able to find the one currently active." 

Tony sits up a bit straighter at that, preparing himself to finally get the location Peter's at. _this is it, this is it._ "Where?" he asks, mouth dry and palms sweating as his blood are rushing through his ears.

"Upstate New York, in Franklin country."

And there it is, that's the place, that's where Peter is currently being held. 

It sounds faint, even to his own ears. 

"What's the name of it?" Steve asks when Tony just stays silent. 

"Camp Gabriels." 

The room grows quiet, they're all waiting for Tony for a reaction, but all he does is stare blankly into the air.

_CampGabrielsCampGabrielsCampGabrielscampgabrielscampgabriels._

It repeats itself over and over in his head, it feels like a trick, like Beck hacked into FRIDAY just so she would say the wrong place, like Beck will pop in out of nowhere just to tell them that they're too late, that Peter couldn't hold on anymore, that Peter's _dead._

But he doesn't, the room stays the same, his team-mates keeps looking at him, growing more and more concerned the longer the time drags on. 

But at last, Tony drags in a ragged breath, before an almost gleeful chuckle escapes him. He sees his team-mates perk up at the sound, and they all start smiling, Rhodey puts a hand on his shoulder and when Tony turns to look at him, he's smiling too. 

_How long has it been? Since this team ever shared such a happy moment like this?_

Tony can almost see Peter's own smile, looking proudly at them all. 

"We got him now, Tones." Rhodey tells him. 

And Tony, _smiles too._

"We got him." He agrees. 

_And please, let that be true._

They leave to get everything ready for the rescue after that, Bruce calling up every single medical staff he can find, just so they can treat Peter the moment they find him. The others are suiting up and preparing the quinjet, but Tony makes one more stop before that. 

It's silent as he stands in front of Peter's door, a door that used to hold the most precious thing in the universe safe and sound. He's already sent a text to Pepper about their new mission and assure her multiple times Peter and him will be alright, he just needs to assure one more person. 

With a deep breath, he opens the door, hands shaking as he slowly steps into the darkened room, where the light from the city casts a warm glow through the giant window. He looks at the bed, sheets rumbled from May and his occasional stays, the navy blue comforted laying crumbled on the ground. 

He looks at the wall above it, tears stinging in his eyes as he sees the hundreds of pictures of Peter and his family, of Peter and _him._ The small sentenced scribbled underneath each picture, of Peter and that MJ girl, his nerdy kid and the even nerdier best friend. He wonders how they're doing, Tony knows they deserve the best with how happy they could make Peter.

At last, his gaze settles on a picture he and Peter took, in the beginning when their relationship got stronger. They're both holding up a certificate when Peter first became an official intern, Peter's hand making bunny ears on Tony, while being totally unaware Tony's doing the same. He almost laughs again at the kid's expression when he was showed the result. 

The picture is placed innocently on Peter's nightstand, and Tony watches it as he slowly takes a place on the bed. Leaning forward, Tony gently takes the photo in his hand before he brings it back to himself, rubbing a thumb over the corner of the frame as Peter's happy face smiles back at him. 

"Just a few more hours, bud," Tony whispers, as he slowly pushes two fingertips against his lips, before placing them in the middle of the frame. "A few more hours, and then I'll take care of you." He closes his eyes as he lowers his forehead to the photo. 

_Please, please, please, don't leave just yet._

_I need you._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :O


End file.
